A 61-year-old computer consultant who police say shot his wife to death and then turned the gun on himself apparently changed his personal Web site to eerily announce the couple’s demise before the murder-suicide last night.
Police have identified the shooter as Christian Mogensen and his wife, 60-year-old Sharon Glassman, as the victim.
This morning, Mogensen’s Web site,
www.mrmogensen.com, featured a photo of the couple on their wedding day, Christmas Eve 1996. Next to the photo are the couple’s names, individual birth dates and the same death date: “Sept. 28, 2008 R.I.P.” In the photo, the well-dressed pair is standing on City Hall plaza.
The couple’s bodies were found late last night or early this morning after a police SWAT team made their way to the 20th floor of the high-rise apartment building at 10 Emerson Place, which is part of the Charles River Park apartments.
Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said the initial investigation indicates the couple died in a murder-suicide.
“At some point, officers entered the apartment and located a deceased male and female, apparently husband and wife, suffering from gunshot wounds,” she said. “The preliminary investigation suggests that it is a murder-suicide and that it was the husband that committed the suicide,” as well as the murder.
She said police are still investigating.
“It’s all unfolding,” she said.
A neighbor said the pair had lived in the building for about 10 years. Mogensen was a “computer geek” who helped out neighbors with their personal computer problems. Glassman worked at a Boston hospital, she said.
Mogensen is a self-employed Web developer/IT consultant, according to his resume posted online.
“It’s just overwhelming. I just can’t get over it. He was such a talented, funny guy. I can’t believe this happened,” said the woman, who didn’t want her name used.
The neighbor said she knew the couple casually, and never heard them argue.
“They seemed like a very, very compatible couple,” she said. “They were both computer types.”
The couple’s marriage certificate indicates it was a first marriage for both of them.
The neighbor described Glassman as “just delightful, always with a smile.”
The woman said although others in the building were evacuated while a SWAT team entered the building, she was told to stay inside.
“The police said, ‘Don’t open the door no matter what happens,’ ” she said.
Despite being just a few doors down from the couple, she said she didn’t hear gunshots.
Boston police said last night that a man called 911 at about 9:30 from Emerson Place saying he’d killed his wife and would commit suicide if police entered his apartment.