Reginald Maclaren (Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office), Bethany Maclaren and Ruth Jennifer Maclaren (KUSA screenshot)
An 83-year-old man in Colorado will spend the rest of his days behind bars for killing and dismembering his wife and daughter with an ax last year then telling police he did not regret massacring his family because he knew they were “in a better place.”
District Judge Michelle Amico on Wednesday ordered Reginald Maclaren to serve two sentences of life in a state correctional facility without the possibility of parole for the 2023 slayings of his wife, 70-year-old Bethany Maclaren, and his 35-year-old daughter Ruth Jennifer Maclaren, authorities announced.
A jury last month found Maclaren guilty on two counts of first-degree murder as well as two counts of tampering with a deceased body, and one count of false reporting. He was sentenced to an additional 12 years each on two counts of tampering with a deceased body charges and 120 days on the false reporting charge.
Under Colorado state law, defendants convicted of first-degree murder serve a mandatory sentence of life without parole.
According to the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, Amico ordered that Maclaren serve the life sentences consecutively, meaning one after the other. Maclaren’s defense attorney requested that the sentences run concurrently, but was quickly shot down by Amico.
“To run these sentences concurrent would be tantamount to the court placing no value to the life of Bethany or Ruth,” the judge said, according to a report from Denver ABC affiliate KMGH. “Their lives clearly had value and meaning and they deserve to be remembered as those beautiful and innocent souls, rather than for the horrific way Maclaren chose to end their lives.”
Bethany Maclaren’s niece addressed the court, giving a victim impact statement.
“This crime has snatched away from us a loving and caring aunt, and sister,” she reportedly said. “It pains us a lot, we couldn’t even say goodbye to our beloveds. We are deeply saddened and hurt [by what] my uncle did.”
As previously reported by Law&Crime, following Maclaren’s arrest, Englewood Police Division Chief Tracy Jones told reporters that some of the detectives who had been on the job for more than 20 years said the inside of MacLaren’s home was “one of the most gruesome crime scenes that they’d ever been a part of.”
Police at approximately 6:03 p.m. on March 25 responded to a residence located in the 900 block of Englewood Pkwy after receiving a call from a man — later identified as Maclaren — who reported that his wife and daughter had just been murdered. Police say Maclaren told the emergency dispatcher that “he believed he knew the suspect and that the suspect had used a hammer” to kill the two women.
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders entered the home where they discovered “two victims inside large trashcans that were on the floor of the living room/kitchen area.”
Both victims appeared to have sustained “substantial injuries” and showed “no signs of life.” They were pronounced dead at the scene.
EPD homicide detectives, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation Crime Scene Unit, and the Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office all responded to the crime scene to conduct a joint investigation. During the course of that investigation, authorities determined that both of the women were killed with an ax, and “one victim was dismembered with a saw.”
Detectives found a Stanley brand hand saw near the garbage cans and “observed large amounts of blood throughout the apartment,” according to a sworn affidavit.
About three hours after the 911 call, Maclaren confessed to the murders, saying he had recently been terminated from his job, had no money left, and had to kill his family to prevent them from becoming homeless.
“Approximately 10 days ago, (Maclaren) began planning to kill his family so they would not be homeless,” the affidavit states. “He bought an ax, two ‘Totter’ style trash cans and a hand saw from Home Depot. He fully intended to use these items in the commission of the murders.”
Maclaren also allegedly provided details about the murders.
“This morning (3/25/23) at approximately 11 a.m., his wife and daughter were sitting on the couch. He struck his wife in the head with the ax, immediately knocking her unconscious,” the affidavit states. “He then struck his daughter in the head with the ax, knocking her unconscious. He struck each victim in the head with the ax two more times. He knew he had killed them.”
Maclaren further told investigators that he knew the bodies of his wife and daughter would not fit into the newly purchased trash cans, so he “used the saw had purchased to saw the victims’ arms and legs off” before putting their remains in the cans. However, he told police that he was not strong enough to lift the cans, so he couldn’t move the bodies.
“(Maclaren) does not regret killing his family as he ‘knows they are in a better place,”” police wrote in the affidavit.
Amico ordered Maclaren to return to court on Aug. 13, for a hearing regarding restitution.
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