READING — There was an argument over all the rescue cats his mother took in. She wanted him to move out; his father told him to get a job. There was also an ominous message a friend received from Ryan Hanafin Wednesday night, hinting at violence.
Those are some of the harrowing new details revealed in a police report on Friday about the shooting death of Andria Hanafin in the kitchen of her family’s suburban home in Reading. Police also disclosed they found 19 guns in the bedroom of her eldest son, who has been charged with her murder and firearm offenses.
Ryan Hanafin was arrested Thursday in Vermont, where he fled in the hours after the shooting. During a brief court appearance Friday afternoon, Ryan Hanafin agreed to be returned to Massachusetts to face the charges.
His father, Matthew Hanafin, told investigators he had returned home just after midnight Thursday from his job at FedEx and went into the kitchen to feed the cats, according to the police report. That’s when he discovered his wife lying in a pool of blood.
Matthew Hanafin also told police he last spoke with his older son around 11 a.m. Wednesday, telling him he needed to get a job and “do something with his life.” His wife then called him shortly before 7 p.m. to recount an argument that she had with Ryan Hanafin, this over her many rescue cats inside the Center Avenue home.
He had recently been getting into arguments with his mother “about the cats in the house, which the victim was rescuing,” police wrote.
Police estimated there were 20 to 30 cats roaming around when they arrived on scene. Andria Hanafin was well known in the local animal rescue community for her longstanding commitment to fostering lost and abandoned cats. She worked as a veterinary technician at a clinic in Dorchester.
Investigators also spoke with a friend of Ryan Hanafin.
According to the report, the friend said Ryan Hanafin sent him a Snapchat message on Wednesday night, claiming he had just told a cousin: “I blew madre to pieces,” using the Spanish word for mother. He added that the cousin believed him, the report says.
When police searched the family’s home, they found a gun safe with the name “Ryan” painted on it. They recovered 19 guns, four of which were locked in the safe, according to the report.
Ryan Hanafin graduated from Reading Memorial High School in 2022. He was unemployed but had previously worked at a gun shop in Woburn called Four Seasons, whose owner declined to comment Friday. Authorities have said Ryan Hanafin had a license to carry a firearm, and, his father told them, “always carries a gun concealed on his person.”
Authorities have said the family had no history of visits from the police or documented mental health issues.
Neighbors and family friends, meanwhile, presented conflicting accounts of Ryan Hanafin.
Laurie Ward, for whom he would frequently cat sit, said she knew he owned guns but “had no qualms about trusting him.” She said she kept a strict no-gun policy at her home.
She also said Ryan Hanafin had his personal struggles, but those seemed no different what other young adults his age face.
“He didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life,” Ward said. “But we never had a problem.”
Ryan Hanafin had expressed interest in pursuing a career in law enforcement; he was a criminal justice major before leaving college, she said. He was also a longtime Boy Scout who had a solid group of friends from high school, added Heather Gagliardi, a close friend and next-door neighbor of the Hanafins.
“Ryan honestly was a good kid,” Gagliardi said, adding that he shared his mother’s natural willingness to help people. He’d bought his younger sister a car when she got her license, Gagliardi said.
But tensions had been building recently within the family, which neighbors described in otherwise glowing terms. Many people who knew her said Andria Hanafin was an incredibly devoted mother to her three children.
While mother and son had gone out to spend quality time together just last week, Andria Hanafin also admitted she was growing frustrated that Ryan didn’t have a job and was still living at home.
Gagliardi said Ryan Hanafin had left Salem State University with just one semester left to graduate. .
Andria Hanafin also began fostering many more cats in recent years, though Gagliardi said she’d be surprised if that had added to domestic tensions since animals in the Hanafin home were nothing new.
Ryan Hanafin was taken into custody without incident after police pulled him over on an access road to the Sugarbush Ski Area.
Gagliardi said their families would regularly visit the picturesque town for vacations, sometimes staying on the very street where Ryan Hanafin was arrested.
“I can’t imagine what he was thinking of doing,” Gagliardi said Friday. “I’m not surprised he was up there. … It was a safe place for him.”
Appearing in court in Vermont, Ryan Hanafin was alert and responsive, repeatedly answering “Yes, sir” when the judge addressed him. He waived his right to fight extradition, allowing authorities to bring him back to Massachusetts.
According to the police report, Matthew Hanafin called 911 at 12:38 a.m. Thursday. He told a dispatcher that “his wife was dead and that there was blood all over the floor.” He tried to shake her, but there were “obvious signs of death,” police said.
Dispatchers asked if her wounds appeared to be self-inflicted. Matthew Hanafin said “he was not sure,” adding that his son Ryan Hanafin was not home, the report said. Responding officers later located Andria Hanafin in “the upstairs kitchen area laying on her right side,” police said.
During a subsequent interview at the police station, Matthew Hanafin said he had noticed that Ryan’s Dodge Charger wasn’t in the driveway when he came home from work, which he thought was strange since his son hadn’t left the house in several days, the report said.
Matthew Hanafin said he last spoke to his wife around 6:50 p.m. after missing “numerous” calls from her.
“They spoke briefly about an argument with their son Ryan about the cats in the household,” the report said. During that conversation, the victim “told Matthew she wanted Ryan to move out of the house.” Police noted there had been other recent arguments about the cats.
Ryan Hanafin’s younger brother, meanwhile, told police he’d been out riding bikes with friends and returned home around 9 p.m., according to the report. The 13-year-old also said he didn’t see his brother’s car when he got home, which he, too, found strange. He said he went straight to his room and didn’t see his mother.
One neighbor, the report continued, told police he heard a popping sound between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. A second neighbor indicated Andria Hanafin had relayed “ongoing issues” with her son Ryan, according to the report.
On Friday, leaves blew around their otherwise quiet neighborhood, where residents continued to reflect on the tragedy.
“How are they going to heal?” said neighbor Stephany Driscoll. “Your heart just bleeds terribly.”
Shannon Larson of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe. Bryan Hecht can be reached at bryan.hecht@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @bhechtjournalism. Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Lea Skene can be reached at lea.skene@globe.com. Follow her on X @lea_skene.