Winchester Continues to Deal with Homicides

The sirens, the police tape, the multitude of reporters and national media attention; it's a day that still seems surreal to many of Winchester's residents.

It's been five weeks now since Thomas Mortimer IV ended the lives of his children, Thomas "Finn" Mortimer V, 4, and Charlotte Mortimer, 2; his wife Laura Stone-Mortimer, 41; and his mother-in-law, Ellen Ragna Stone, 64.

Many in the community would like to try and forget these events happened and try to move on with their life. And Reverend Thomas Brown of the Parish of the Epiphany understands why there is so much fear and concern in the community.

"People think, 'Oh my God', this doesn't happen in Winchester," said Brown. "We have lovely homes and good schools. We somehow feel that we're immune to the pressures, that we are somehow free of consumerism and all the pressures of everyday life."

Brown suggests a different approach to handling the tragedy at 2 Windsong Lane. Reverend Brown, who ministered the funeral for the four victims last month, wants the Winchester community to talk, to open up, about the homicide, but also about themselves.

"I don't know the family pressure Mr. Mortimer was under, I don't know what led him to perpetrate this violence," Brown said. "Whatever the reason it's not totally unrelated to the pressure we put on ourselves to be successful, gain wealth, be perfect in terms of parenting. We portray this emotional cohesion to one another, but that's not the way life is.

"My concern is that we spend a lot of time and money making sure those realities of life aren't shown, they're not talked about. It's something that we need to have a conversation about; it's time we start talking and opening up."

It's an event that didn't just affect the Mortimer family or the residents that live along Windsong lane; its effect reaches throughout the community.

"Understandably there are feelings of fear and apprehension and unease because it happened so close by," said Reverend Thomas Nestor of St. Eulalia, whose church had a vigil for the victims. "It's something that's not confined to just the victims and their family. Police and civic officials dealt with it firsthand. The rest of us are affected more remotely, but this happened in the confines of our town."

Reverend Brown understands the mourning that goes along with a tragedy of this magnitude, but he also wants the community to learn from it and hopefully grow.

"We need to tell the truth about our lives," Brown said. "We all live under pressure. It's not about living in Winchester. To be human is to live with pressure, pain. It's how we deal with it that matters.

"It's truly sad that no one knew that Thomas Mortimer was under this type of pain and pressure, not his friends, his family or his colleagues."

As people walk along Main Street, in this small, close-knit community, they are almost guaranteed to pass by a neighbor, a friend, a colleague, but, according to Brown, that doesn't mean they truly understand one another.

"People know one another, there's a sense of being acquainted," Brown said. "But I wonder, do we have the knowledge to ease one another's pain? We all put up this façade to hide the pressure. Hopefully we start opening up as a community."