Brockton: Man pleads guilty to strangling wife and daughter

A Brockton man has been sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to strangling his wife and daughter back in 2007.

Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz said 46-year-old Mark Benoit entered guilty pleas on Tuesday in Brockton Superior Court to two counts of first degree murder for strangling his wife, 41-year-old Cindy Benoit, and their 9-year-old daughter Sarah.

Benoit told police that he had been feeling depressed and strangled the two in their beds and then cut his neck and wrists in an attempt to kill himself. He left a four-page note on his wife’s body blaming society, drugs, his wife and the prior loss of two babies. He told police he killed his daughter because he didn’t want to leave her alone with people, because they can’t be trusted.

Sarah was a student at the Plouffe School in Brockton. The couple also had a son, who was living with friends and family in Norwell and was a senior at Norwell High School at the time. He turned 18 years old the day of the murders.