In 2004, the world was shocked because of the disturbing news about 2 people axed to death by an unknown intruder. It was November 15, as Peter and Joan Porco lay sleeping in their beds at their home on Brockley Drive in Delmar, New York, an intruder entered their house with an evil intent. Slowly, the intruder sneaked into the garage, grabbed an axe and went to the Porcos’ bedroom. He wielded the axe at the Porcos’ arms, heads and faces with great ferocity. Leaving the Porco for dead, the intruder silently left the house and vanished to the night.
Hours later, when Peter Porco failed to show up to his job at the state supreme court where he worked as a law clerk, his boss, Judge Cardona, assigned a court officer Michael Harte to go to the house at 36 Brockley Drive to check up on him. It was unusual for Peter to be late and his colleagues were concerned something was wrong. When Harte arrived at the house nobody answered the door, although he noticed it was unlocked. He opened the door to the house and peered inside. He was shocked at what he saw.
The inside of the house was covered in blood. When he looked up the stairs he saw the mangled body of Peter Porco on the landing. He was clearly beyond any medical help. Harte called Judge Cardona and told him of the gruesome finding. The police were immediately called to the scene.
First Impressions of the Porco Crime Scene:
Detective Chris Bowdish of the Bethlehem New York Police Department rushed to the scene to make the initial investigation. He had been to the Porcos’ residence before and met Joan and Peter in November of 2002 while investigating a robbery at their home, which had never been solved.
As soon as he passed the threshold of the house, along with a barrage of other officers there to investigate the scene, Detective Bowdish immediately noticed some things that seemed unusual.
- Jenny Chu of WROC-TV reported that the spare key to the house, which the Porcos normally kept hidden in a nearby flowerpot, was in the front door lock.
- Bowdish noticed that the house wasn’t “tossed,” with drawers pulled out and their contents dumped like what you would normally see in a robbery. Instead, Joan’s purse and other valuable household items were untouched.
- The alarm system had been tampered with, the telephone wires in the backyard were cut.
- A screen to a window in the garage was also cut and the window was wide open giving some credence to the theory that a burglary took place.
- The rest of the crime scene just didn’t jibe with the robbery theory, especially since nothing in the house of value was stolen.
Bowdish had his suspicions. Based on his first impression, he had the “feeling that it was an inside job” and not a burglary at all. In other words, someone who knew the Porcos intimately was likely responsible for the bloody carnage that lay before him. Bowdish was interested in talking with the Porcos’ two sons, Christopher (Chris) Porco, 21, and Jonathan Porco, 23, curious to know if they had any information as to who might have been responsible for such brutality.
A Miracle happened and the intruder revealed:
As investigators searched the house they came across another alarming discovery. In the upstairs master bedroom they found Joan’s body lying across the blood-soaked bed with the bloody axe on the floor nearby. The officers believed that she was dead, since it was unlikely that she could have survived such a vicious attack. Joan’s face was unrecognizable and her skull cracked to the point that her brain was visible. Yet, to their amazement she wasn’t dead at all. In fact, she wasn’t even unconscious.
The emergency medical technicians (EMT) were called in and began working on Joan immediately. While the EMT were administering to her wounds, Detective Bowdish saw that Joan was conscious enough to respond to questioning. He then proceeded to ask her who might have been responsible for the attacks. Joan’s jaw was broken so she could not talk, yet she was able to nod her head up and down and move it from side to side to answer questions.
When asked if her son Jonathan attacked her, Joan responded no. However, according to court documents, when asked if her son Chris did, she “forcefully, adamantly” indicated to Detective Bowdish and the paramedics with an up and down nod that it was indeed Chris who attacked her. In fact, she indicated several times thereafter that Chris attacked her; it was reported in the court documents.
A the investigation continues, the court finds Christopher Porco or Chris Porco guilty for the brutal murder of his own father and attempted murder for his mother.
Chris Porco Appeals after the conviction:
More than two-and-a-half years after he was convicted of murdering his father and nearly killing his mother, lawyers for Christopher Porco have filed an appeal. Among the issues raised by the defense, witness testimony allowed during trial, that Joan Porco nodded when asked if her son attacked her, and the admissibility of evidence collected after police obtained a statement from Porco in an interrogation that was tossed out before trial.
After all the evidence pointed to him, Christopher Porco still manage to have a face to appeal for his brutal acts to his own parents. May justice prevail and put him back to where he truly belongs and pay for his crimes.
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