Hey guys! Welcome back to Crime Sunday, I hope you and your loved ones had a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and I hope 2023 is treating you well so far! I am so happy to be back on my True Crime blog and YouTube Channel after a busy holiday season! —– Today’s story will show you just how dangerous someone can be once they have decided the whole world is against them and they have nothing to lose. This story will also be up on my YouTube if you prefer to listen to it, linked below!
Just 25 miles east of Seattle in the charming town of Carnation, WA, lived the Anderson family. Wayne and Judy Anderson were high school sweethearts from California who relocated to the state of Washington for Wayne’s new engineering job at an aerospace company. Carnation was a safe town filled with comfort and tradition, and since it offered a short commute to Seattle where Wayne’s new job was, he and Judy thought this town would be the perfect place to raise their family. They lived on a decent-sized piece of land in a rural area giving their children plenty of space to grow up. Judy became a well-loved mail carrier for the town and always looked out for the residents on her route. Judy and Wayne had three children; Mary, Scott, and Michele. Judy’s children were her entire world and overall the Andersons seemed to be a very close family.
Mary, their eldest child, left the family home after high school and began a life of her own. I couldn’t find many details about what she did after leaving, but I do know she eventually became a mother and settled in North Bend, WA, which is only a 25-minute drive from her parent’s house. Despite being several years older than Scott and Michele, she adored and cared for them as well as her parents, so she remained close to the entire family and visited frequently. She was especially close to her mother and the two spoke almost every day.
During high school, Scott, the middle child, was quite the athlete. He was a valued member of the football team and he also participated in wrestling, baseball, and track. Track is where he met his high school sweetheart, Erica Mantle. Erica was a sweet down to earth girl who was also very driven. Not only was she involved in track but she was also on the school’s drill team and worked a few different jobs all throughout high school. Scott and Erica were best friends and did everything together. After high school, Scott was offered a full-ride football scholarship to the University of Washington where he obtained a degree in business. Erica studied culinary arts at Lake Washington Institute of Technology while working at Pine Lake store as an Assistant Bakery Manager with hopes of opening her own bakery in the future. On October 24th, 1999 shortly after they both graduated college, Scott and Erica got married in Las Vegas. Scott worked for his father-in-law’s construction business for several years before getting hired on with Mid Mountain Contractors as a foreman and where the work was more steady. When their daughter, Olivia, was born in 2002, Erica became a stay-at-home Mom and in 2004 their son Nathan was born. Erica was a devoted mother who would do anything for her two children. Both Scott and Erica’s families were proud of the life they created together and both of their parents enjoyed spending time with Olivia and Nathan and being hands-on grandparents. However, there was one person in the Anderson family that didn’t seem all that thrilled for Scott and Erica.
Michele, the youngest child, was described by former classmates as a sweet shy artistic girl who hung out with the outcasts in High School. Michele would often refer to herself as the black sheep of her family and also made some serious abuse allegations against her parents. Michele told her friends at school that her parents were physically abusive and said when she was just six years old, her Mom tried to kill her by forcing her to fall out of a moving vehicle. However, Mary said that even though Michele was much younger than her, she always had to be in control, was very bossy, and was spoiled by their parents. I’m not sure if Michele’s parents were aware of the abuse allegations but you would think if the allegations had any truth to them, Michele would want to get away from them as soon as possible. However, after High School, Michele continued to live with her parents and appeared to be drifting through life with no plans for her future, working dead-end jobs, and complaining about everything. A lot of people say that Michele became very angry at the world after High School and often expressed how she felt like the world was against her and overall was a very negative person to be around.
Growing up, Michele was super close with her brother Scott but when Erica came into Scott’s life, Michele felt like Erica had replaced her as Scott’s best friend which made Michele resent Erica and caused some tension between all three of them. Erica made many attempts to form a friendship with Michele but all her attempts failed and it seemed like the further Scott and Erica’s lives progressed together, the more Michele’s hatred for both of them grew. She would often make comments about Erica’s appearance and say things like “My brother works hard all day long and deserves to come home to someone who takes better care of themselves.” Not only was Michele attacking Erica, but she also claimed that Scott used her for money and said she loaned him over $40,000 since she was in High School. Michele says she was the one that paid Scott and Erica’s down payment for their house and would often pay for their groceries and clothes for their children. She said Scott was the type of person who had to have the best of the best and fooled everyone into thinking he was a good person. Michelle tried to take credit for all of her brother’s accomplishments as if lending him money for so long was the sole reason for his success and also the reason for her life not turning out as great as his because she took on a huge financial burden to help him out. Michele is the only person to ever make these kinds of allegations about Scott and her parents.
In 2002, Michele met her long-term boyfriend, Joseph McEnroe, through an online writing form where strangers on the internet could come together and write fantasy stories. Joseph was an introvert who spent most of his free time on the internet talking to strangers through online chat services and writing forms because he was very insecure about a speech impediment that he has so he was never comfortable socializing in person. He was the oldest of four and they were raised by a single mom who had special needs. His Mom says she did her best to give her children a good life but because of her disabilities, she was only able to obtain jobs at fast food restaurants or gas stations which made it really hard for her to make ends meet on her own. She really wanted to find a partner in life to help her raise her four children but all the men she dated turned out to be one loser after another and Joseph says he did experience some abuse from her boyfriends. She would move Joseph and his siblings all over the United States so she could pursue these relationships that ultimately always failed. It seemed like Joseph was following in his mother’s footsteps because after talking online for just six months, Michele invited Joseph to move to Washington to be with her and he accepted. When he left the state of Arizona, he told his family he wanted to marry Michele and start a family with her.
Joseph says at first, the relationship with Michele was great and she was very loving. But it didn’t take long before Michele started to show some pretty obvious red flags. Michele convinced Joseph to cut ties with his entire family after Joseph’s mom broke the lease agreement at the apartment they had lived at together prior to his move to Washington and also made him cut ties with all of the friends he had made online before he met Michele. At one point, Joseph and Michele were living at the Spring Glen Mobile Home Park in Fall City and this is where the relationship really turned toxic. The property manager said the couple was quiet, paid their rent on time, and never really gave him any issues. However, neighbors described the couple to be paranoid and isolated. They had placed black trash bags over all their windows and neighbors witnessed Judy bringing the groceries and other household goods at least once a month. They said when the couple would talk to them, they expressed how they were fearful for their lives and Michele would always bring up the fact that she and Joseph were struggling financially but her family had a lot of money. They also said it was clear Michele was the one in control of the relationship because she would always speak for Joseph even if he was present for the conversation. One neighbor said he would hear Michele yelling and belittling Joseph from inside their trailer for hours. Joseph said his main goal every day was to stay out of Michele’s way and not get yelled at. He said when they did fight, the fights would always end with him curled up in the corner while Michele yelled at him for hours and she just couldn’t let it go if Joseph said or did anything she didn’t like.
Michele continued to think the whole world and family were against her. She would come home almost every day from her job as security at a Nintendo store expressing to Joseph how much her co-workers didn’t respect her and how she wished she could kill them. She also told Joseph how horrible her family was to her and starting express to him how she wished she could kill them as well. She told Joseph that Scott and Erica were abusive towards Olivia and Nathan and that she felt they would be better off dead. Joseph says Michele had become so manipulative and controlling that he believed everything she said even though he admitted he never witnessed her family treating her badly.
Because Joseph and Michele were unemployed and became so paranoid that the neighbors were out to get them, they moved into a trailer that was on Judy and Wayne’s property. The relationship between Michele and her family started to go downhill when the topic of Michele and Joseph paying rent came up from everyone in the family. Mary felt that her parents were getting older and it was time for Michele to get off the free ride that she had been riding her entire life. Michele asked her parents if they would allow her and Joseph one year to get on their feet before they started paying rent but Wayne and Judy refused to help Michele because they had helped her for years before this. This really upset Michele, she felt really entitled to her parent’s money for whatever reason. This caused a lot of tension between Michele and her family though it was all one-sided. Things got even worse when Michele’s parents took Scott’s side when Michele accused him of taking money she had given him to buy parts for her car that had broken down. She said Scott told her he would fix the car but he spent the money on himself. Wayne and Judy took Scott’s side and basically told Michele she had no right to question Scott financially when she was living on their property for free. One day Michele was venting to Mary about her parents and Scott and she was so full of anger and rage that she told Mary she wished she could just kill them. Mary didn’t take that as a threat to her parents and thought her sister was just emotional.
For about three months before Christmas in the year of 2007, Michele completely cut off communication with her family. Mary said that when she would try to go to her trailer to visit her, Michele wouldn’t answer the door. Judy was hopeful that by Christmas Eve, the tension between Michele and the rest of the family had calmed down because she and Wayne really wanted to have all their children and grandchildren over for their Christmas Eve family get-together as they had done for many many years in the past. Judy reached out to all of her children about Christmas Eve plans and they all said they would be there for dinner but nobody could have ever imagined what Michele was planning.
On December 23rd 2007, Mary calls her Mom to confirm Christmas Eve plans. She said when she called her Mom, she could hear Michele in the background asking her if Mary was going to be at the Christmas Eve Dinner and Mary told her yes and they exchanged “I love you and Im sorry” to each other before the call ended. Judy and Michele were out Christmas shopping that day and Judy had bought Michele a movie for Christmas and she bought Joseph some cologne. It seemed like Michele had let everything go and it was going to be a successful Christmas Eve dinner for the Anderson family.
Warning – Details of the crime are next and maybe hard to read.
On December 24th, 2007, Michele and Joseph show up early at Wayne and Judy’s home because they wanted to help wrap presents. When they arrived, Michele went into the kitchen to help her Mom make a green bean casserole and Joseph sat in the living room with Wayne watching TV and making small talk. About 45 minutes later, Wayne asks Michele and Joseph to move their truck out of the driveway because Scott and Erica would be arriving soon and the truck was in the way. Joseph says he walks up to Michele and said “if you are going to do this, you need to do it now, or let’s just leave.” He then goes into the craft room with Judy to help wrap presents and a few minutes later, they hear a gun fire from the living room. Joseph says he ran back to the kitchen and living room area and sees Michele pointing her gun at Wayne. However she missed Wayne and when Wayne turned around to see Michele pointing a gun at him, he starts to charge toward her. Joseph said Michele told him that he wouldn’t have to kill anyone, that he was just there to protect her and Joseph claims he didn’t want to kill anyone but in that moment, Michele’s gun had actually jammed. Joseph pulls out his gun and fires at Wayne, killing him. At this point, Judy walked in to see what was going on and she witnessed Joseph killing her husband so she starts screaming “no no no.” Joseph then turns to Judy and shoots her causing her to fall, then he walks up to her and says “I’m sorry” and shoots her in the head.
After killing Michele’s parents, Joseph and Michele drag their bodies into the backyard and clean up the blood then they wait for Scott and Erica to arrive. Joseph tells Michele he doesn’t want to kill anyone else and he fixes her gun and Michele tells Joseph he doesn’t have to kill anyone else. When Scott and Erica arrive with their two children, Joseph makes small talk with Scott about his job and Erica sits on the living room couch to help her two children take off their shoes. Michele then comes into the living and starts asking Scott where her money is and Scott tells her he doesn’t know what she is talking about. Then Michele pulls out her gun and fires a round at Scott. Scott then tackles Michele to the ground to try to get the gun away from her and that’s when Joseph steps in. He said he tried to pull Scott off of Michele but he wasn’t strong enough. He shoots Scott killing him and Michele is able to get out from underneath him. At this point, Erica made her way to Judy and Wayne’s home telephone and called 911. However, she wasn’t able to speak to the 911 operator because Joseph had walked over, took the phone from her, and removed the batteries from the phone. Erica goes back over to her children and puts her arms around them and that’s when Michele walks over in front of them. Erica asks Michele “why are you doing this?” and Michele says “Because you hate me, you’ve always hated me.” and Erica says “No we don’t! We love you, we have always loved you.” Michele then fires several shots toward Erica and her children but it doesn’t kill them. Joesph then loads the last three bullets into his gun, walks over to Erica and her children, and shoots Erica in the head first so she doesn’t have to watch her children die. Then he kills 5-year-old Olivia by shooting her in the head and does the same to 3-year-old Nathan.
Even though Joseph claims he didn’t plan to kill anyone, it was clear that Michele did the planning and attacking but in the end, he was the one to take all six of their lives.
After Michele and Joseph killed her entire family, they planned to run away to Canada but somehow they got lost and ended up in Morton, WA which was the complete opposite direction of Canada. After purchasing a map and still failing to find their way, they threw the guns off of a bridge and decided to go back home to shower and sleep. It didn’t seem like the two had a plan on what to do next. The next day, which was Christmas, they drove around throwing more evidence into dumpsters, going to a bank ATM so Michele could pay her car payment, and Michele wanted to get the car’s oil changed but it was Christmas so they couldn’t.
When Judy didn’t show up to work on December 26th at the postal office, her best friend and co-worker, Linda became worried because Judy always showed up on time and wouldn’t miss the day after Christmas as it was one of the post offices’ busiest days. Linda goes to Wayne and Judy’s home to check on her but what she discovered was so much worse than what she expected to find. She discovered the bodies of Scott, Erica, Olivia, and Nathan and made her way to Judy and Wayne’s bedroom to call 911. When police got there, they located Judy and Wayne’s bodies in the backyard. This crime scene was a shock to police as Carnation was a safe small town. At first, they had no idea who would want to kill an entire family until Michele and Joseph showed up to the crime scene.
When Detective Scott Tompkins starts speaking with Michele he notices that Michele never once asked him why there were so many cops and helicopters flying around her parent’s property. When he asks Michele when was the last time she saw her parents, she told him that it was Christmas Eve morning and that her Joseph had just returned from attempting to drive to Las Vegas to get married but because they got lost and they got a flat tire, they decided to come home and fly to Vegas instead. When the decretive asks Michele, why she thought Law Enforcement was at the property Michele first said because she thought her parent’s home was on fire, then asks if her Dad had a heart attack, and then she asked if someone stole her truck. The detective wasn’t buying it and asked Michele if she would ever harm or family. At first, Michele says no but then follows that up with “it’s all my fault” and confesses to killing her family. Michele was also very adamant that she made Joseph kill her family and it wasn’t his fault at all. When police speak with Joseph he is still in protective mode and tries to deny everything until he learns that Michele had confessed to the crime.
It took almost eight years for this case to go to trial because the courts were trying to decide if Michele and Joseph should be tried together or separately, they also had to go through mental evaluations, and Michele made things difficult for her defense team as she expressed many times she wanted the death penalty but her lawyers told her they were going to save her life. During Michele’s trial, her sister Mary testified that she and her son became ill Christmas Eve so they weren’t able to make it to the Christmas Eve dinner and it made her sick to her stomach that her own sister would have killed her if she had shown up that evening. Erica’s Mom also testified and told the court how amazing Erica and Scott both were. She also confronted Michele during her sentencing trial and called her a bully and told her Erica only ever tried to be her friend.
During Joseph’s trial, his Mom testified that she hadn’t heard from her son in five years but when she saw him after he was arrested, he looked like a completely different person. She said he normally would keep himself clean-shaved but all of his hair was grown out and his Mom almost didn’t recognize him. She told the court about Joseph’s childhood and how she did her best to raise him. She said if Joseph never met Michele, he would have never done what he did and it was hard for her to believe. Joseph also took to the witness stand to tell the court that Michele controlled him and turned him into her attack dog. When he was asked why he didn’t just leave, he said he felt like Michele was emotionally unstable and he didn’t want to abandon her. He also detailed the crime to the courtroom and at one point he completely broke down. He said he would never make an excuse for what he did and took full responsibility. I’m some people watching his testimony may feel sorry for him but there is no excuse for killing innocent people, especially young children.
Michele Anderson and Joesph McEnroe were both given six life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murder of Wayne, Judy, Scott, Erica, Olivia, and Nathan Anderson.