Woman found in Massachusetts home with dead babies charged with murder

BOSTON (Reuters) - A 31-year-old Massachusetts woman who authorities discovered living with the bodies of three dead babies tucked inside a closet in her rodent-infested house was charged on Tuesday with two counts of murder, prosecutors said. The woman, Erika Murray, had been charged in September with crimes including fetal death concealment after police found the bodies of three dead young children in the home in Blackstone, Massachusetts, she shared with her boyfriend, Raymond Rivera, 38. Rivera was arrested on Tuesday and charged with seven criminal counts including assault and battery on a child causing substantial bodily injury. "This has been and will continue to be a difficult case," Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said in a statement. "Our investigators followed the evidence where it led." Police were called to the house, located in a suburb some 40 miles southwest of Boston near the Rhode Island border in August, after crying children were reported there. They found four children, ranging in age from three months to 13 years, who were taken into state custody. All the children, living and deceased, were the offspring of Murray and Rivera, prosecutors said. Attorneys for the two defendants could not be reached for immediate comment. Authorities have since razed the house, which had been located just a half-mile from the local police station on a quiet residential street. (Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Eric Walsh)