Massachusetts ‘wife killer’ Aaron Pennington is probably already dead, family friends believe – as the hunt for him enters its second week.
The Air Force veteran, 33, vanished from their family home in Gardner on October 22, moments before his wife Breanne, 30, was found dead with a shotgun wound to her face.
He had threatened suicide in the past, investigators have said, and his car was found abandoned the following day on a wooded trail outside the town.
Police have warned the public not to approach the ‘armed and dangerous’ engineer but are scaling down their search after combing hundreds of acres and a lake around the former Boy Scout camp where the white BMW sedan was found.
‘Aaron is still on the run although it is thought that he will probably die by suicide,’ Beanne’s friend Erin Mackie wrote on Facebook.
Pennington was a special mission aircraft maintenance journeyman and left the US Air Force in February with the rank of Senior Airman
Police divers searched Lake Wampanoag at the weekend, close to the spot where Pennington’s car was discovered
Breanne ‘lit up the room like no other, any room that she walked in’ her sister said
‘If any of you reading this struggle with mental health I urge you to seek help.’
The couple’s children, aged two, five, seven and nine, raised the alarm when they went to a neighbor’s house and told her their mother was crying in a bedroom, and they could not find their father.
Five minutes later, first responders arrived and discovered Breanne dead in an upstairs bedroom.
Two gofundmepages have been set up to help the children, including one by Breanne’s uncle Jeffrey Hull.
‘As an extended family, we are trying plan for the future of her four children. We are trying to create a loving home for them,’ he wrote.
‘Please help us provide for their physical, emotional, and educational needs as they recover from this traumatic event.’
Investigators think Pennington used a handgun his wife used for her own protection to kill her before leaving the house with it.
‘Breanne Pennington had plans of moving to Texas with the kids to be away from Aaron Pennington,’
The latest arrest warrant details the chilling note found on Pennington’s cell phone
The latest image released on Thursday shows Pennington as captured by a Ring doorbell camera and is watermarked as having been captured on October 11
Aaron Pennington, 33, and his wife Breanne, 30, appeared to have a close and loving relationship in photos posted to social media
Armed members of the Massachusetts State Police Special Emergency Response Team have been leading the search
But the former Boy Scout camp where Pennington’s car was found a week ago covers more than 400 acres of woodland
Police report the couple were grappling with ‘marital issues for quite some time’
The 33-year-old veteran’s white BMW sedan was found abandoned down a trail in a wooded area not far from the family’s home town of Gardner
The engineer is also accused of unlawfully possessing a firearm without a license to carry
The couple’s social media pages showed an apparently close bond between Pennington and his four children
The couple’s four children aged – two, five, seven and nine – went to a neighbor’s house and told her their mother was crying in a bedroom, and they could not find their father
‘Aaron Pennington suffered from mental health issues and had threatened suicide,’ in the criminal complaint.
A judge issued a fresh arrest warrant for the US Air Force veteran after investigators discovered a chilling note written on Pennington’s phone just hours before her death.
‘Don’t say anything. Be quiet if she wakes up just say you’re getting nasal spray,’ it read.
‘Get on side of bed – very close proximity to head.
‘Put hole in her head.’
Security footage from the neighbor showed Pennington driving off at 8.50am on the morning of his wife’s death, before his four children left their Cherry Street home together 17 minutes later.
‘He better turn himself in,’ Breanne’s sister Brooke Pertile said.
‘He needs to stand up for what he did, and turn himself in. And not be a coward. He needs to turn himself in. He needs to do it for the kids.’
Pennington spent eight years in the US Air Force as a ‘special missions aircraft maintainer’ and was working at Raytheon Missiles and Defense, where he also holds an ‘active secret clearance,’ according to his LinkedIn profile.
Pertile said her sister lived for their children, and was a ‘very loving, caring, compassionate woman’ who ‘always saw the best in everything and people.’
Three shotgun cartridges were found in the couple’s bedroom and their children who ran for help are now reportedly in state care.
‘On the outside he was a very nice person,’ said Pertile sister who had spoken to her just three days before the shooting.
‘But he’s been struggling with some mental health issues. They just were getting worse.’
In a 2016 Facebook post, the veteran thanked his wife for all that she did for the family.
‘You have the most selfless outlook and are so dedicated to making us happy,’ he wrote. We appreciate you as the hardest working mother and wife out there. You are truly amazing!’
He praised her for ‘always being patient’ and setting a great example for their children.