CONCORD — Sean Sweeney, the man whose wife and two young children were shot to death in their Northfield family home on Wednesday, is “beyond devastated” and being assisted by victim-witness professionals, a homicide prosecutor said Friday afternoon.
Homicide prosecutor Geoffrey Ward also said the shootings of Kassandra Sweeney, 25, Benjamin Sweeney, 4, and Mason Sweeney, 1, were not random.
As authorities have said since Thursday afternoon, Ward reiterated that all parties involved are accounted for and that the public faces no danger in connection with the killings.
“The father is somebody we have been in contact with and who has been very cooperative and helpful in this investigation,” Ward said. “He is obviously beyond devastated.”
Ward, who is the chief of the Criminal Justice Bureau in the Department of Justice, appeared before reporters and a half-dozen television news cameras, including five from Boston stations, to discuss the case.
No one has been arrested, and no warrants have been issued, he said. “I have not said we know who did it,” Ward said. “I’ve said that we have identified all the parties involved.”
Authorities, he said, are early in their investigation.
“In any homicide investigation, we’re dealing with complex scenes and complex scenarios. We have to await autopsies being done,” Ward said. “We have to await forensic testing that does not move as quickly as it does on television.”
The family was killed sometime Wednesday, he said, but he wouldn’t give a timeframe. Police arrived at the family home at 11:33 a.m. Wednesday in response to a 911 call, Ward said.
All three victims were found inside the house, but Ward wouldn’t say in which rooms they were discovered.
He also would not address some detailed questions: whether police had previously been called to the family home at 56 Wethersfield Drive, what type of gun was used, whether the three knew their killer, and whether the involved parties have had a lawyer present during any questioning by police.
He ruled out any connection to the double homicide of Stephen and Djeswende “Wendy” Reid in Concord last April. Authorities have not made an arrest in that case.
Ward described the Northfield deaths as devastating, but said police and prosecutors are focused on bringing the perpetrators to justice.
On Saturday, Northfield police and state investigators announced they were searching several areas around Northfield and Tilton in connection with the deaths.
In a statement, the Attorney General’s Office said investigators did not have new information, but would search around Wethersfield Drive, the street where the family lived, as well as Shaker Road and Tilton Road in Northfield, Laconia Road in Tilton, and around the Interstate 93 exit ramps to Tilton. About 30 state police officers were expected to be involved in the search.
Meanwhile, an online fundraising effort in support of Sean Sweeney approached $25,000 as of Friday afternoon, more than twice the $10,000 goal set by Alizabeth Dawson. Dawson identified herself as the cousin of Kassandra Sweeney, 25.
“My cousin Kassandra, one of the most genuine and beautiful people you could ever meet, and her two beautiful boys were taken from us,” Dawson wrote. “Our family is beyond devastated.” She asked for donations to help Sean take care of living expenses and for funeral expenses.
According to online property records, Sean and Kassandra Sweeney purchased the two-story colonial in Northfield in March 2021. The 3,000-square-foot home sits on 2.3 acres.
Sean Sweeney’s Facebook page shows mostly photos of his children and a pitch for donations to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. A year ago he posted about being a truck driver on roads that are increasingly dangerous.
“We aren’t moving slow for fun, and we don’t enjoy it either,” he wrote.
