LYNN — Relief. That was Vinnie Masucci’s immediate reaction after hearing a Suffolk County Superior Court jury pronounce his son-in-law guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his daughter.
Andrew MacCormack, by Massachusetts law, will spend the rest of his life in prison with no possibility of parole after the jury found him guilty of the brutal murder of his wife, Vanessa (Masucci) MacCormack on Sept. 23, 2017, inside their Revere home.
Formal sentencing will be Dec. 2.
Days after Vanessa MacCormack’s body was found, police arrested and charged her husband. During the 11-day trial that began last month, Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum sought to prove that in the weeks leading up to her death, Vanessa, who grew up in Lynn and taught at the Connery School, had become fed up with her husband’s erratic and evasive behavior and wanted a divorce. The couple’s daughter, Adrianna, was 1 at the time.
On the day she died, Andrew MacCormack left home, but returned after his mother, who lived with the family, had left the house. The evidence proved that MacCormack strangled, stabbed, and viciously beat his wife in their bedroom, all while Adrianna was inside the home.
After the jury was given instructions and was sent to deliberate, Masucci figured it would come back with a guilty verdict within a day. Instead, deliberations took nearly a week, with the jury at one point saying it was deadlocked.
“I thought they’d be back in a day,” he said. “I thought it was an open-and-shut case. But after two days, they came back in and said they were deadlocked. I couldn’t believe it.”
However, presiding Judge Mary Ames told the jury to keep trying.
“She told them to look deep, and looked at all the evidence, and to work together,” Masucci’s wife, Karen said.
In text message exchanges during the month before her murder, Vanessa MacCormack told her husband she intended to sell their house and seek out a divorce attorney. This came after, earlier in the year, he had forged checks to himself from his wife’s personal bank account and took one of her credit cards, which she had reported stolen. In addition, her wedding ring disappeared — as did the ring purchased with insurance money to replace it. MacCormack also pawned his own wedding band for $120.
In addition to the injuries that took her life, Vanessa MacCormack’s body sustained chemical burns after her death. The evidence showed that these burns, and a rash that he had on his own upper body, were caused by bleach that the defendant used in an attempt to clean up the scene.
The defendant drove around the Revere area and then brought his daughter with him to a friend’s home in Saugus, where he completed a carpentry job, Polumbaum said. On the way there, he texted the victim’s phone to create the appearance that he was unaware of her death. After finishing the carpentry job, and with his daughter in the car, the defendant then drove to East Boston where he purchased $100 in cocaine from his long-time dealer, according to the evidence.
During the course of the day, the defendant received phone calls from the Masuccis, who had become worried when they were unable to reach their daughter.
The defendant was on the phone with the victim’s mother when he arrived home, and reported that he had discovered Vanessa’s body.
“Vanessa Masucci’s future was violently ripped away from her by the person who took an oath, promising to love and care for her. I will not refer to Vanessa by her married name because the man who took her life will not also take her identity,” District Attorney Rachael Rollins said. “Vanessa’s loved ones — her parents, her siblings, and her daughter — have been left with a void in their hearts and questions that can never be answered.”
“This hasn’t sunk in yet, ” Karen Masucci said. “We’re relieved. Every time we get too low, though, we have our granddaughter (now 3).
“We had such support,” Vinnie Masucci said. “The people at the Connery School all came to the trial for one of the days. The superintendent (Dr. Patrick Tutwiler) was also very supportive.”
Although the Masuccis spoke shortly after the trial, they weren’t sure they’d speak at the sentencing on Dec. 2.
