Police testify on Greenfield murder investigation

PHOTOGRAPHER: David Lombardo

The 27-year-old Greenfield man accused of killing his mother allegedly spent days adding items into the hole where he had already placed her body.

Joshua P. McWain, of 370 Daniels Road, is suspected of beating his mother, Carol L. Stanford, 59, to death on Oct. 27 at the mobile home they shared. On Friday he was in court, where he faces a second-degree murder charge and a felony charge of tampering with physical evidence for allegedly hiding his mother’s body under a shed.

Saratoga County District Attorney James A. Murphy III said police testified Friday about statements McWain made when he was arrested at the end of October.

Investigators testified that McWain admitted to hitting his mother in the head with a floor buffer because he was mad at her for making him do chores. He then put her body in a sleeping bag, police said, and buried her in a hole he had dug beneath their shed.

In subsequent days, McWain took multiple trips to visit his mother’s body. During one of those visits, police said, he left a “world’s greatest mother” statue in the hole.

Murphy said the judge will now take two weeks to decide whether McWain was properly advised of his rights by police and whether he actually confessed.

Saratoga County sheriff’s deputies learned Oct. 30 that Stanford was missing after neighbors, who were concerned about not seeing her for days, asked law enforcement personnel to check on her.

When they questioned McWain in the matter, he admitted to killing his mother and led investigators to her body, authorities have said. Saratoga County Sheriff James Bowen previously said McWain “lost it” during an argument with his mother.

Stanford, who died of blunt force trauma to the head and excessive bleeding, had a daughter who lives in Corinth and five grandchildren. She was widowed in 2005.