In court Thursday, a jury heard accused killer Joe McEnroe confess to shooting his girlfriend's entire family.
Joe McEnroe is charged with six counts of aggravated first-degree murder for killing his girlfriend's family in Carnation on Christmas Eve in 2007.
His girlfriend, Michele K. Anderson is also charged with the murders.
The recording lasted about three hours.
For more than an hour and a half on the recordings, McEnroe stuck to his story about seeing Wayne and Judy Anderson on Christmas Eve 2007. He said he and Michele Anderson told her parents they were headed to Las Vegas to elope.
"They were, they were thrilled, you know. I mean yeah. I mean I was gonna be officially a part of the family now," said a relaxed, talkative McEnroe on the recording.
The conversation turned when detective Jake Pavlovich told McEnroe that Michele K. Anderson was telling another detective they were responsible for the murders.
"I basically told him, 'I know you were involved. Michele is telling us the truth. I would like to get the truth from you as well,'" Detective Jake Pavlovich told the court Thursday.
Then in the recording, McEnroe slowly revealed how he and Anderson shot her parents, Wayne and Judy Anderson, her brother Scott Anderson and his wife Erica, and the couples' two young children: Olivia,5, and Nathan, 3.
"I remember telling Erica that I was sorry, and I remember, I remember Nathan, Nathan looked, Nathan looked like he understood," said McEnroe in the recorded confession, "… like he didn't hate us for it."
Then McEnroe admitted he shot the 3-year-old: "I killed him with a single shot to the head. I didn't want him to suffer."
McEnroe went on: "I didn't want anybody to suffer, okay? I shot Erica in the head. I shot Olivia in the head."
Pam Mantle sat in the court room and shook her head — Erica Anderson was her daughter, Olivia and Nathan were her grandchildren.
When Detective Pavlovich asked McEnroe why he killed Erica, Olivia and Nathan, McEnroe replied, "They saw everything. We thought that if we left them alone, if we walked away, we'd be here telling you what I am now; the same reason we shot mom. That's the same."
Throughout the recorded interview McEnroe refers to Michelle Anderson's parents, Judy and Wayne, as mom and dad.
McEnroe told the detective he felt bad about the murders. "This, you know, of all the things that I've ever seen in my life, nothing is worse than then seeing, seeing somebody dead and knowing that it was my fault," said McEnroe two-thirds of the way through his recorded confession.
Investigators say the motive was money. Anderson was upset her parents were going to ask her to start paying rent for the mobile home she and McEnroe shared on her parents' property.
Anderson believed her brother owed her money.
McEnroe's defense team said McEnroe did kill the Anderson family, but did so because he was under the control of Michele K. Anderson.
McEnroe's trial has been delayed by arguments over a possible death penalty and whether he can change his not guilty plea to not guilty by reason of insanity.
McEnroe tried to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty. The King County prosecutor wouldn't make a deal.
The defense for McEnroe Anderson has topped $8 million, according to the King County Department of Public Defense. The King County Prosecutor's staff said they have spent just over $1 million.
The costs associated with investigations and work by the WSP Crime Lab are not included in that figure.
Anderson's trial, delayed by questions of her mental competency, is scheduled for the fall.
Prosecutors will play the rest of the confession in court on Monday.
Want to talk about the news of the day? Watch free streaming video on the KIRO 7 mobile app and iPad app, and join us here on Facebook.