‘Bullet holes everywhere’ at the scene of a quadruple murder in Maine, affidavit says

By Alisha Ebrahimji and Andi Babineau, CNN

The woman who found the bodies of four people who were murdered at a home in Maine told police she saw “several firearms laying out” and “bullet holes everywhere,” according to a probable cause affidavit for the case.

Lisa Shea, who was visiting Maine for the Easter holiday found her sister, Patricia Eger, brother-in-law Robert Eger, Cynthia Eaton and David Eaton dead in the Egers’ Bowdoin home Tuesday, the document said.

Shea told law enforcement she had stayed at the Egers’ home for part of her visit and then shifted to her son’s house so the Eatons, who were visiting from Ocala, Florida, could await the release of their son, Joseph, from prison, the affidavit said.

Shea texted her sister Tuesday morning but didn’t get a response, according to the affidavit. She went back to the Egers’ home to get a sweatshirt she had forgotten and when she arrived, she found drops of blood on the front steps, the document said.

When she entered the home, Shea saw broken glass and more blood on the floor, a body covered by a towel in the kitchen, and drag marks to another part of the home, she said.

All of the victims’ bodies had been covered, the affidavit said.

Shea told officers she believed the body she found was her brother-in-law Robert because of his shirt, but couldn’t be sure because he and David Eaton resembled one another.

A spokesperson for Maine State Police previously said the Egers and Cynthia Eaton were discovered in the house and David Eaton was found in a barn nearby.

According to the affidavit, a dog was also killed.

A note was found on the kitchen island that talked about “someone being freed of pain” and wanting “a new life,” the affidavit said. The note was not addressed to anyone nor was it signed, according to the document.

Dispatch received the first reports of someone shooting at cars on the interstate just over an hour after Shea’s 911 call, the document said.

Several calls came in, including two reporting shootings and one reporting a suspicious male with blood on him in the road, the affidavit said.

Three additional people in one car were wounded in the highway shootings.

Joseph Eaton, 34, was located by law enforcement in the woods near a highway off ramp, police said previously.

Once he was in police custody, he confessed to shooting and killing his parents, their friends and firing at vehicles he thought were carrying officers who were following him on the highway, the affidavit said.

The vehicle he had been driving, which the affidavit said was rented by the Eatons from the Portland airport, was found with cartridge casings of various sizes on the passenger side and had been parked on a nearby off ramp.

“It is very early in this case and there are a lot of unanswered questions,” Eaton’s attorney Andrew Wright said in a statement to CNN. “Whatever happened that day was certainly tragic and no one doubts that.

“At this time we are concentrating on making sure Joseph Eaton’s rights are protected, that he has the ability to work with counsel, and that we get to the bottom of this.”

Eaton made his first court appearance Thursday morning, documents show. He was charged with four counts of murder and is being held without bail.

“I would ask the public not to prejudge Mr. Eaton as he is presumed innocent,” Wright continued. “We will work together to guide Joe in the coming months through the difficulties associated with these charges.”

Eaton will undergo a mental competency evaluation to determine whether he’s able to stand trial, the documents said. The results of the evaluation will remain sealed, per the judge’s order.

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