LYNN — More than anything else, Vinnie Masucci wants everyone to know this about his daughter Vanessa: “Her smile could light up a room.”
The Masucci Family — Vinnie, his wife, Karen, their daughter, Angela and son Joe — has been living a horrible nightmare. They were in Seabrook, N.H., Saturday afternoon when their son-in-law, Andrew MacCormack, spoke with Karen Masucci over the phone.
“All of a sudden,” Masucci said quietly, “I heard Karen scream ‘call 9-1-1.’
The next thing he heard was his wife, screaming, “he yelled that she’s dead.”
The circumstances surrounding the murder of Vanessa MacCormack are such that the Masuccis had the sick sense that something was wrong for almost the entire day.
“She called us all the time,” Masucci said. “We watched their daughter every day while she taught at school. If she was driving to the gym, she’d call us and talk to us while she was on the way.
“But Saturday, we didn’t get a call from her. We kept calling her phone and there was no response. It would keep ringing.”
Masucci does some shopping for an uncle of his who lives at the Soldier’s Home in Chelsea, and that’s why he and his wife were in Seabrook.
“All the way up to Seabrook, we were calling her and there was no answer,” Masucci said. “Finally, we called Andrew and told him Vanessa wasn’t answering the phone. He said he was over his friend’s house but that he was sure she was OK. We kept calling back and forth until finally he got to their house and went inside.”
And that’s when he called Karen Masucci back and told her that their daughter was dead.
MacCormack was arraigned in Chelsea District Court Wednesday and charged with the murder.
Masucci and his wife drove to Revere from the store in Seabrook.
“It felt like the longest ride I’ve ever taken,” he said, “but I was flying. I think I was going 90 all the way. I had to see what happened to my daughter.”
But the police wouldn’t let him inside.
“I told them I want to see it. It can’t be true. I want to see my daughter,” he said. “But they said I couldn’t go in there. They told me I didn’t want to see it. We spent from 5:30 until a little after midnight at the Revere Police station being interviewed.”
With all that’s happened since Saturday, the Masuccis don’t want to forget their daughter, and how much joy she brought to them.
“My daughter was so unbelievable,” he said. “It’s amazing how many people she touched. She wasn’t just our daughter. She was our friend. She was my wife’s best friend.
“And we loved her so much,” he said. “There was no sacrifice we wouldn’t make.”
He said he was amazed at some of the details that came out at the court hearing, especially that her daughter and MacCormack were having troubles.
“She never let on,” he said. “Her smile never changed. She was so loving, and she made everyone around her laugh.
He said he was the one who drove MacCormack to the police station Tuesday so that he could be arrested and formally charged.
“I can’t put in the paper what I was thinking,” he said.
As bad as things are now, he knows they’re going to get worse. The family has made arrangements with Solimine Funeral Home, and he knows that will be a difficult ordeal. But what fuels the family is the welfare of their granddaughter.
“Nothing,” he said, “will bring my daughter back. Our main concern now is our granddaughter and making sure she lives a normal life.
“But it’s so painful,” he said. “I had to take some of our pictures of Vanessa down because she saw them and recognized them. Vanessa loved that little girl. She won’t be at peace if her daughter is not taken care of.”
Masucci wanted to make sure people knew that despite what’s happened, there is no ill-will between his family and MacCormack’s.
“We love Andrew’s mother,” he said. “When we got to court, we hugged them and talked to them. They didn’t do anything wrong. Vanessa adored her.
“This has ruined two families,” he said. “Our family will never be the same. Neither will theirs.”
