Oxygen's Homicide for the Holidays: Who is Michele Anderson and what did she do?

In 2007, Michele Anderson, from Carnation, Washington, brutally murdered three generations of her family with the assistance of her boyfriend, Joseph McEnroe. The couple reportedly arrived at the Anderson family's home on Christmas Eve that year for a family gathering and gunned down her elderly parents. Her elder brother, his wife, and their two young kids also met a similar fate.

The shooting was reportedly sparked by financial feuds and unfair treatment, as per the confessions made by Michele and her boyfriend Joseph, who were arrested days after the incident. Years later, they were both found guilty on six counts of aggravated first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

An upcoming episode of Homicide for the Holidays will revisit the mass murder case of the Carnation-based family. The episode, titled Christmas Carnage in Carnation, airs on Oxygen this Friday, December 2, 2022, at 9 pm ET.

The synopsis reads:

"The holiday season screeches to a halt when six members of the Anderson family are discovered to have been gunned down in their home; detectives work closely with family friends to track down the shocking murderer."

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Michele Anderson and Joseph McEnroe were arrested two days after Christmas Eve

Michele Anderson and her boyfriend, Joseph McEnroe, were arrested and charged within days after they brutally massacred three generations of the Anderson family at their Carnation home on Christmas Eve 2007. The couple first shot and killed Michele's parents, Wayne and Judy Anderson. The two then cleaned up the house and waited for her older brother, Scott, his wife, Erica, and their two young kids, Olivia and Nathan. Michele and Joseph then ambushed her brother's family and shot them dead.

Their bodies were discovered two days later, and authorities were informed about it. Michele Anderson and McEnroe, both 29, were detained on charges of homicide after arriving at the crime scene the same day authorities were notified of the dead bodies.

She admitted to being upset with her brother for not repaying the $40,000 he borrowed from her over the years, and she was also outraged with her parents for siding with her brother. She claimed that she was also angry about her parents' demand for her and McEnroe to start paying rent for the mobile home on her parents' rural property.

Michele reportedly told authorities,

"I wanted my mom, brother and dad to die because they abused me over the years. I wasted my life because of these a**holes. It’s not fair."

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Michele Anderson was found guilty and sentenced to six life terms in prison

Michele Anderson was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences in April 2016 for conspiring with her partner to murder six members of her family in 2007. In March 2016, she was found guilty of six charges of aggravated first-degree murder. The judge stated that Anderson's term was "pretty much preordained," since the only sentence in such cases is death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Although Anderson initially faced the prospect of death for the murders, prosecutors withdrew the death penalty from consideration after two different juries refused to impose death sentences in two other capital-murder cases. One of those was McEnroe's case, who was found guilty of the same murders in 2015 and received six life sentences.

Despite both defendants' in-depth confessions outlining their participation in the slaughter that killed three generations of the Anderson family, it took years to finally bring them to justice. According to Washington State Department of Corrections records, Michele Anderson is currently serving time at the Washington Corrections Center for Women, while Joseph McEnroe remains imprisoned at the Washington State Penitentiary.

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Oxygen's Homicide for the Holidays airs on Friday, December 2, with the Anderson family mass murder case.