New light shed on mental state of man accused of killing 4

Newly released documents are shedding light on the state of mind of a recent college graduate accused of fatally beating his mother, grandparents and their caretaker with a baseball bat in Massachusetts. (Photo by Alan Levine/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

GROTON, Mass. — Newly released documents are shedding light on the state of mind of a recent college graduate accused of fatally beating his mother, grandparents and their caretaker with a baseball bat in Massachusetts.

The Boston Globe reports the mother of 22-year-old Orion Krause called 911 on Sept. 7 worried that he was suicidal after he abruptly left their home in Rockport, Maine.

Documents provided to The Portland Press Herald show a woman called police the next day to report a call her husband had received from Krause, a former student of his at Oberlin College in Ohio. The woman says Krause told her husband, “I think I have to kill my mom.”

Police discovered the bodies of the four people that evening in Groton, Massachusetts.

Krause has pleaded not guilty.