Crime
Prosecutors allege Ryan Hanafin sent a text saying he “blew madre to pieces” around the time his mother was shot and killed.
Ryan Hanafin, the Reading man accused of fatally shooting his mother last week, was ordered held without bail Thursday as a prosecutor called him a “severe flight risk” and highlighted his alleged stockpile of firearms and ammunition.
The 22-year-old was arrested Oct. 8 in Vermont, where authorities say he fled after shooting his mother, 49-year-old Andria Hanafin, following a dispute in the family’s Center Avenue home.
He is charged with first-degree murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and a slew of firearms-related offenses across two separate court dockets. A not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf Thursday during his arraignment in Woburn District Court.
Ryan Hanafin was living at home with his parents and younger brother, and he and his mother “had an ongoing dispute about the number of cats that were living in the home,” Assistant District Attorney Carrie Spiros told the court.
Andria Hanafin worked at a veterinary clinic and fostered “many, many cats,” she added. Authorities located more than 80 cats inside the home following her death, Spiros confirmed.
She said Andria Hanafin also told a friend she was afraid of her eldest son and feared he might retaliate against her, given he owned firearms. Ryan Hanafin held a license to carry and had 10 legally registered firearms, though Spiros said a search of his bedroom turned up 19 firearms stowed among “hoarding” conditions.
A gun safe found inside the room also contained an untraceable “ghost gun” with no serial number, she alleged.
“The other firearms were essentially improperly stored, unsecured, throughout the bedroom, in and on boxes that were chest-high in that bedroom,” Spiros said, adding that two firearms appeared to be missing.
Matthew Hanafin, Andria’s husband and Ryan’s father, told investigators he had last spoken to his wife by phone the evening of Oct. 7. According to Spiros, phone records put the call at about 6:51 p.m.
“And during that conversation, Matthew Hanafin indicated that his wife expressed to him that she had been arguing with their son, Ryan Hanafin, and that she had wanted her son to move out of the home,” Spiros said.
She alleged that surveillance video showed Ryan Hanafin’s Dodge Charger leaving the family’s neighborhood at about 6:59 p.m. that night, and he stopped at a Cumberland Farms in Wakefield minutes later to purchase gas and a Pepsi. According to Spiros, Ryan Hanafin then got onto the highway and headed north.
Matthew Hanafin called 911 at about 12:38 a.m. on Oct. 8 after returning home from work to find his wife dead in the kitchen and their older son missing.
The Hanafins had previously gone on vacation in Warren, Vermont, and a Vermont State Police trooper spotted Ryan Hanafin driving in the area the afternoon of Oct. 8. When investigators took Ryan Hanafin into custody and searched his car, they found a rifle and “thousands of rounds of ammunition” inside the vehicle, Spiros said.
She further alleged that Ryan Hanafin had sent a series of telling Snapchat messages to his cousin and a friend around the time of the fatal shooting. In one message, according to Spiros, Ryan Hanafin used the Spanish word for “mother” as he said he “blew madre to pieces.”
In another message to his cousin, Ryan Hanafin allegedly wrote that he “blew her s—t smooth off.”
“So while I recognize that this defendant comes before the court with no record and that these are the first criminal offenses he is facing, he is now facing the most potential severe penalty under Massachusetts law,” Spiros said. If convicted of first-degree murder, Ryan Hanafin faces life in prison without parole.
Spiros asked that he be held without bail, arguing he poses a “severe flight risk” if released. Carolyn McGowan, Ryan Hanafin’s public defender, told the court she would not seek bail at this time, though she asked that his detention be set without prejudice.
Judge Jason Chan also agreed to impound probable cause statements in Ryan Hanafin’s two criminal dockets after prosecutors said the documents contain sensitive details and two witnesses had already expressed concerns about the information being made public.
Ryan Hanafin is due back in court Nov. 10.
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