Man accused of slaughtering family after row

The 43-year-old was remanded in custody on four charges of first-degree murder.

The bodies of the women and the children, a boy of four and girl of two, were found on Wednesday in their home in the middle-class Boston suburb of Winchester. They all appeared to have been stabbed or bludgeoned to death.

Prosecutors said he wrote two identical letters found in the house that read: "I did these horrible things. What I've done was extremely selfish and cowardly. I murdered my family."

Police would not say how the victims died, but District Attorney Gerry Leone described it as a "horrific, disturbing and unspeakable" scene.