Slain Schoolteacher's Husband Gets Life In Prison

REVERE, MA — A Revere man who prosecutors said murdered his wife and then took their 1-year-old daughter to buy cocaine was sentenced to life in prison Monday. Andrew MacCormack, 31, was convicted of first-degree murder last month in the death of his wife, 30-year-old Vanessa MacCormack.

Prosecutors said MacCormack beat, strangled and stabbed his wife, a beloved Lynn elementary school teacher, in their Revere home in 2017.

MacCormack tried to cover up the murder, cleaning the scene with bleach and driving around in random routes for several hours, according to authorities. He then brought the couple's infant daughter, who was home at the time of the murder, with him to finish a carpentry job at a friend's house in Saugus and to buy $100 in cocaine in East Boston, prosecutors said.

MacCormack texted his wife on his way to the carpentry job to feign ignorance of her death, authorities said. Throughout the day, MacCormack received multiple calls from his wife's parents, who were worried when they could not reach their daughter. He was on the phone with his wife's mother when he arrived home and pretended he had just discovered her body, according to prosecutors.

Vanessa MacCormack was found unresponsive on Sept. 23, 2017 following a 911 call placed by her husband. Her body showed "obvious signs of physical trauma," the Suffolk District Attorney's office said at the time. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities quickly homed in her husband, whose drug habit was costing the family thousands of dollars a week, prosecutors said at MacCormack's arraignment in 2017. His wife had threatened divorce unless he got clean and stopped draining the family's finances.

Text messages showed that in the month leading up to her murder, Vanessa MacCormack told her husband she was going to sell their house and find a divorce attorney, prosecutors said. Earlier that year, MacCormack forged checks to himself from his wife's bank account and took her credit card, which she reported stolen.

He also pawned his wedding band for $120, and his wife's wedding ring and replacement ring both went missing, according to prosecutors.

MacCormack's lawyers argued that though the couple had their issues, they were largely happy. The defense claimed he was out with his daughter at the time of the murder and said there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime scene.

MacCormack maintained his innocence at his sentencing Monday, saying there is "someone else getting away with murder," according to WCVB. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.