An 83-year-old man was convicted Friday on all counts in the 2023 murders of his wife and daughter with an ax.

An Arapahoe County jury found Reginald Maclaren guilty of the following charges in the deaths of 70-year-old Bethany Maclaren and 35-year-old Ruth Jennifer Maclaren:

• Two counts of first-degree murder after deliberation
• Two counts of tampering with a deceased body
• False reporting

On March 26, 2023, Maclaren called 911 and said his wife and daughter had been murdered.

When officers arrived at their apartment at 901 Englewood Pkwy., they found the bodies of the two victims inside large trash cans in the living room/kitchen area of the apartment, according to Englewood Police.

“The hardest part for me was hearing how many times he had struck his daughter with an ax,” said Anne Hines, who was in court for the week-long trial. She said Ruth was struck 23 times.

Hines is the executive director of the Colorado Nepal Alliance and has been working with the victims’ family in India for the past year.

Hines said the defense argued that the murder did not add up, pointing to the fact Maclaren was the one who called 911 and stayed at the scene until police came. But she said the evidence presented by the prosecution was insurmountable.

According to an arrest affidavit from the Englewood Police Department, Maclaren confessed to a detective after the crime. He described striking his wife and daughter in their heads with an ax as they sat on the couch Saturday morning. He said both were knocked unconscious and that he struck each of them two more times and then placed their bodies in the trash cans. He said he was unable to lift the cans to move them outside the apartment, according to the affidavit.

Maclaren told police he had recently purchased the trash cans, ax and a saw, and he said he “fully intended” to use those items to kill his family. He also told police that he “does not regret” killing his family because he “knows they are in a better place,” the affidavit says.

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