A Mississauga woman and her common-law spouse are now accused of killing her estranged husband’s entire family — a father, mother and adult son all found dead in the same suburban home years apart.

Melissa Merritt, 34, and Christopher Fattore, 37, appeared before a judge in Brampton Thursday and were jointly charged with first-degree murder in the death of 65-year-old Bill Harrison, whose sudden passing in 2009 was not considered suspicious until his wife and son were found dead years later.

The accused have been behind bars since last January, when they were charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of 63-year-old Bridget Harrison, an esteemed educator, and her only son, Caleb Harrison, 40, who fathered two children with Merritt.

The charges laid in Bill Harrison’s death mean police now believe three homicides occurred in one Mississauga home in separate events over four and a half years — all at the hands of the same alleged killers.

Fattore, a stocky man with a hooped earring in each lobe, was ushered into the courtroom Thursday morning wearing thick-framed spectacles, a cable-knit sweater and handcuffs. He stood nearly a head taller than Merritt, who entered meekly, thinner and frailer than she was a year ago, her straw-coloured hair falling over her shoulders. She cried quietly as the new charges were read, wiping tears from her eyes with shackled hands.

Neither spoke during the brief appearance, except privately to their lawyers, but Fattore appeared to mouth “I love you” to Merritt as she exited the courtroom ahead of him. They have four children together.

Lawyers for Merritt and Fattore have said they intend to fight the charges. A trial date has not been set. The investigation is a complicated one, encompassing more than a decade’s worth of complicated relationships and unfortunate incidents. It may be years before the case is tested in court.

Before her arrest, Merritt had been embroiled in a years-long custody dispute with Caleb Harrison and his family, which is documented in court records obtained by the Star for a 2013 investigation.

Their brief marriage had ended in 2005 after Caleb was charged and later convicted of domestic assault. The custody fight escalated when Merritt abducted the children in April 2009, while Caleb was serving time in jail for a drunk-driving crash six years before that left a taxi driver dead and several teenage passengers injured.

Bridget and Bill Harrison were to share custody with their son’s estranged wife while he was incarcerated, but records show Merritt skipped town against a court order on April 16, 2009 — the same day Bill died. By then, Merritt was in a new relationship with Fattore.

The timing of Bill’s death and the children’s disappearance was considered an unfortunate coincidence and a terrible burden for Bridget, who lost her husband of 40 years and her grandchildren while her only son was in jail. Bill’s remains were cremated, which would later present an obstacle for the Peel homicide detectives who reopened the investigation into his death.

Merritt returned to Ontario in late 2009 and was charged with parental abduction; she was later convicted, but did not serve time. The children went to Bridget.

In April 2010, Bridget’s body was found at the bottom of a staircase on the main floor of the family home on Pitch Pine Cres. in Mississauga. Her death was considered suspicious, but police say nothing pointed to homicide at the time. Investigators believed it was most likely an accident.

Everything changed when Caleb Harrison’s body was discovered in August 2013, the day before his children, aged 10 and 12, were scheduled to return to him after a visitation week with their mother. Police declared Caleb’s death a homicide and launched a new investigation into the mysterious passing of all three Harrisons in the same house.

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Police have said both Caleb and his mother died of asphyxiation, but they will not reveal further details about how they were killed because the method forms an important part of the evidence that will be presented at trial. Police also won’t comment on the evidence that led to the new charges in Bill’s death.

Bill and Bridget Harrison were an outgoing couple who held annual Christmas parties and shared a passion for theatre, jazz and travel. Bill worked as a warehouse manager and volunteered as a baseball coach and Big Brother. Bridget was a visionary in the education field, working as a teacher, principal and superintendent, primarily within the Peel District School Board. They were loving parents who stood by their son when he got into trouble with the law, and they relished their role as grandparents to his two children.

Despite Caleb’s dark past, friends and relatives say he had turned his life around in the years before his death. He never missed an opportunity to speak about how proud he was of his son and daughter. He worked for a small electronic sales company and coached his kids’ baseball teams.

“Caleb was, above all else, a loving and devoted father,” family friend Wanda Jamieson told the Star last year, speaking for a group of the Harrisons’ close surviving relatives.

The family declined to comment on the new charges.

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