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Joseph Eaton, Convicted in 2023 Bowdoin Killings, Dies in Massachusetts Prison

State police have opened an in-custody death review with the cause pending medical examiner findings.

Overview

  • Eaton, 36, was serving a life sentence imposed in 2024 after he pleaded guilty in July to four murders and related charges.
  • He was housed at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster, where staff responded to a 4:15 a.m. medical emergency and he was pronounced dead at a hospital; Maine officials listed his time of death as 5:19 a.m. Tuesday.
  • Prison officials said no foul play is suspected, and the case is being investigated by State Police assigned to the Worcester district attorney’s office.
  • Eaton had confessed to fatally shooting his parents, David and Cynthia Eaton, and their friends Robert and Patricia Eger at a Bowdoin home in April 2023.
  • He also admitted firing at vehicles on I-295 in Yarmouth that day, wounding three people, and a grand jury later alleged he stole nine guns from the Bowdoin home.