'World's Best Mother' Who Threatened to Leave Husband Was Strangled by Him With Daughter Home

The husband of a beloved Massachusetts elementary school teacher who choked and stabbed her and placed a trash bag over her head during a deadly 2017 fight over his drug use has been convicted of murdering her.

On Monday, a jury in Suffolk Superior Court found Andrew MacCormack, 31, guilty of first-degree murder in the 2017 slaying of his wife, Vanessa Masucci, 30, at their home in Revere while their 1-year-old daughter was home, The Boston Globe, reports.

The beloved second-grade teacher was found strangled to death, with slashes to her neck and a garbage bag over her head, according to prosecutors.

MacCormack then took $100 out of an ATM and bought $100 worth of cocaine with the couple’s daughter in the car before his wife was found dead, say prosecutors, CBS Boston reports.

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MacCormack used bleach to clean up the crime scene before calling 911, prosecutors said, according to NBC Boston.

He faces a mandatory life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole. He is scheduled to return to court on Dec. 2 for his sentencing.

Her family was relieved at the verdict, which came after seven days of deliberations in which the jury told the judge last week they were deadlocked, CBS Boston reports.

Andrew MacCormack of Massachusetts
Andrew MacCormack of Massachusetts

Calling his former son-in-law an “animal,” the victim’s father, Vincent Masucci, said, “It’s been so tough and I’m so happy that the jury got it together and did the right thing,” The Globe reports.

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Masucci, a teacher at Connery Elementary School in Lynn, was killed on Sept. 23, 2017, when she and MacCormack fought over the hundreds of dollars a week he spent on drugs, say prosecutors.

He paid for his drug habit by taking money from their bank accounts or selling jewelry, prosecutors said, according to CBS Boston.

She threatened to leave him if he didn’t “shape up,” say prosecutors.

Andrew MacCormack and Vanessa Masucci | Vanessa MacCormack/Facebook
Andrew MacCormack and Vanessa Masucci | Vanessa MacCormack/Facebook

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“Vanessa Masucci’s future was violently ripped away from her by the person who took an oath, promising to love and care for her,” District Attorney Rachael Rollins said in a news release, MassLive.com reports. “I will not refer to Vanessa by her married name because the man who took her life will not also take her identity.”

“Vanessa’s loved ones,” she wrote, “have been left with a void in their hearts and questions that can never be answered.”

Victim ‘Just Loved Family’

For Masucci’s family, the verdict is bittersweet.

“We can’t say we’re happy,” Vanessa’s mother, Karen Masucci, said, CBS Boston reports. “You can never be truly happy after you’ve experienced this. But my daughter can rest in peace now. Justice was served.”

The couple had been married for a little over two years, according to their Facebook pages. MacCormack was a drywaller who studied criminal justice at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, his page says.

It was not immediately clear if he plans to appeal the guilty verdict.

Masucci was close to her family.

“She is the true definition of a family-oriented person,” her sister, Angela Masucci, told CBS Boston at the time. “She always held get-togethers at her beautiful home that she designed to be like a home on HGTV, and always strived to get the family together.

“My sister had the closest relationship with my parents. Them and myself went to her house every single day because she always wanted us there; she just loved family.”

Masucci’s daughter was everything to her.

“My sister was the world’s best mother,” Angela Masucci said, CBS News reports. “She did everything for her daughter and had so many plans for her.”