MARLBORO, Mass. — A Westboro man was ordered held without bail Friday in a gruesome attack in the parking lot of a hotel in Marlboro that left his elderly mother dead, officials said.
Daniel Uhlman, 53, was arraigned in Marlboro District Court on charges including armed assault to murder a person over 60, two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon on a person over 60 in the death of his mother, 82-year-old Nancy Uhlman, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Marlborough Chief of Police David Giorgi.
Officers responding to the Holiday Inn parking lot on Lakeside Avenue shortly after 12:30 p.m. on Thursday found Nancy Uhlman “laying on the ground with significant signs of trauma” and her son with “blood on his hands and arms,” police said in a report.
During the arraignment, prosecutors alleged that Uhlman stabbed his mother about 10 times with a butter knife and smashed her head on the pavement about 20 times before running her over with a truck.
“I tried to cut her throat but she was struggling too much,” Daniel allegedly told a responding officer. " I just felt like killing her.”
Daniel allegedly admitted to police that he killed his mother because he just “snapped” and that he had been planning the attack for at least a week, according to prosecutors.
“Uhlman repeated to the detectives that he slammed her head on the group multiple times, and ran her over with the mother’s truck,” police wrote in the report. “Uhlman told police he thinks he was saying, ‘die, die, die’ to his mother.”
At one point during the alleged attack, the victim attempted to crawl away and stand up, but police say Daniel got in the truck and ran her over twice to “ensure she was dead.”
Daniel had been staying at the hotel and he invited his mother to come see him around 10:30 a.m., according to police. At one point, while speaking to his mother in her truck, he said he to go get cigarettes but instead retrieved the butter knife.
When asked about the horrifying allegations, Daniel’s attorney said outside of court that Massachusetts’ mental health system had “failed” him.
One crime scene was in the hotel’s back parking lot, where police, cleanup crews, and the medical examiner were all investigating. The other crime scene was towards the front of the hotel, surrounding a pickup truck, where police spent hours taking pictures and gathering evidence.
Terry Barroso, who was visiting from New Hampshire, says she turned away from the hotel after seeing all of the homicide investigators outside.
“We drove up and we saw all these cars and we were gonna go check in and we saw the news vans and all of this stuff happening,” said Terry Barroso, who came from New Hampshire. “I mean we really thought Marlborough was a safe community so we’re pretty shocked by this.”
An investigation remains ongoing.
[ DA: Woman facing strangulation, assault charges after mother found dead in Somerville apartment ]
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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