Investigators say the killing was random, while family, co-workers and local institutions absorb the loss.
DANVERS, Mass. — The killing of Janet Swallow, a 68-year-old ICU nurse found dead in her Danvers home, has shaken her town, her hospital colleagues and a nearby Catholic high school now linked to the case through an 18-year-old senior charged with murder.
What makes the case stand out is not only the violence described by prosecutors, but the absence of any known tie between Swallow and the defendant, Anthony DeMayo of Lynn. Authorities say DeMayo pleaded not guilty to murder and armed home invasion and was ordered held without bail after investigators concluded the attack appeared random. That finding has turned the story into more than a single criminal case: it has become a measure of how a community reacts when an ordinary life, rooted in work, family and neighborhood routines, ends in a way officials say no one close to the victim saw coming.
Swallow was described in local coverage as a longtime Danvers resident and a veteran nurse in critical care and intensive care at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington. A hospital statement called her “a beloved and valued member” of the community and said she would be greatly missed by colleagues across the institution. Local reporting after the arraignment painted a wider picture of a life beyond the hospital, saying she left behind two sons and extended family and had deep interests in reading, book clubs and time with loved ones. Those details, small on their own, have mattered because they place a human life at the center of a case otherwise dominated by grim allegations, court procedure and the movements of a suspect between Danvers and Lynn.
Authorities say the violence happened while Swallow was asleep in her home on Amherst Street. Prosecutors said DeMayo later told police he had driven around searching for a house to enter, then climbed through a window and attacked her in bed. They said he stabbed her in the neck and left the house after the assault. The allegation that the home was selected during a drive, rather than through any prior connection, has become one of the most disturbing parts of the case. Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker said investigators had found no connection between Swallow and the alleged attacker. In court and in later reporting, officials have also said no items were missing from the home, a detail that undercut any early assumption that robbery was the motive.
The next chapter unfolded miles away and in a very different setting. In Lynn, police responded to a 911 report of a man walking on Standish Road with a large knife. Ashley O’Brien, who later described the scene to local television, said the young man looked at her in a way that made her believe he remained dangerous. Officers found DeMayo acting erratically and carrying a knife with what police described as a reddish-brown stain. He was taken to Salem Hospital. Prosecutors told the court that he then said he had killed a woman in Danvers the night before. That statement, combined with a search of his home and cellphone evidence, led investigators back to Amherst Street, where Danvers police conducting a well-being check found Swallow dead.
Even the institutions drawn into the case have responded in ways that show how widely the loss spread. At Bishop Fenwick High School in Peabody, where DeMayo was a senior, President Tom Nunan Jr. said the reported incident happened off campus, did not involve other students and did not appear to present a continuing threat to the school community. Counselors were made available for students and staff. In Danvers, Police Chief James Lovell said there was no ongoing danger tied to the homicide. At the hospital, administrators publicly mourned a nurse whose professional role placed her at the center of life-and-death moments for others. The contrast has been sharp: one local institution trying to reassure students, another grieving a colleague, both caught in the same case.
The arraignment added another layer. A court psychologist said DeMayo showed depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation and raised concerns about his rational understanding of the proceedings. Judge Joanna Rodriguez ordered him to undergo further evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital and held him without bail. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf. The district attorney’s office initially said he would return to court April 1 for a probable cause hearing, and later local reporting said a grand jury indicted him April 6 on murder and home invasion charges. Itemlive reported that he is scheduled to appear in Essex County Superior Court on May 11 at 9:30 a.m.
Many of the facts that usually help a community make sense of a killing remain unsettled or undisclosed. Authorities have not publicly described whether the defendant had been in Danvers before that night, whether investigators found digital evidence that explains his route, or whether additional forensic testing has strengthened the timeline first outlined in court. They also have not offered a fuller public explanation for the statements attributed to DeMayo about wanting to kill someone. What has emerged instead is a more emotional map of the case: a nurse’s home, a school already nearing graduation season, a hospital mourning a colleague, and two North Shore communities trying to understand how those places became linked.
The case now moves forward in Superior Court, where the focus will shift from the first shock of the allegations to the slower work of prosecution. Swallow’s name, however, is likely to remain the emotional center of every hearing that follows.
Author note: Last updated April 7, 2026.