Advertisement Elderly woman found dead; Winchester police searching for son Woman may have been dead for days, police say Share Shares Copy Link Copy

The search is on for the son of an elderly woman who was found dead inside her Winchester condo Tuesday morning.Watch reportPolice said they arrived at the Parkview Condominiums around 9 a.m. to conduct a well-being check, and found the woman's body in the living room.The victim was identified by Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan as Barbara McAveeney.Sources said McAveeney was on her living room floor wrapped in trash bags and was killed by blunt-force trauma."That's extremely, extremely disturbing," resident Meghan Silvan said. "This is a very quiet community."Ryan said an arrest warrant has been issued for McAveeney's son, Matthew, 46, on charges of assault with intent to murder, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon resulting in serious bodily injury, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon on a person over 60 years of age or older, assault and battery, and two counts of cruelty to animals."They said he was in trouble with the law, but I did see her. She used to ride her scooter around," one resident said.Investigators spent the entire day processing the scene and collecting evidence and focused on several nearby dumpsters for hours."There were bags of trash, there was a mattress," Cristal Taveras, who witnessed the investigation, said. "I don't know if that's something somebody threw out. They were just looking through everything that was in there."Neighbors said McAveeney was disabled and lived in the building for some time.Police said because of a smell coming from her second-floor unit, they said they think she was killed days ago. Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Matthew McAveeney is asked to call Winchester police or Massachusetts State Police.