BLOOD IN THE 'BURBS

HE SHARED a name with his father and a birthday with his brother, but on Saturday night Joseph McAndrew Jr., 23, allegedly killed both men and his mother - possibly with a samurai sword - at the Gulph Mills home that they shared, according to reports.

"It's so awful, I think I am having a bad dream," said neighbor Doris Ridings.

But if the reports are true, what went on in the three-story house in a well-to-do suburb that night was much more than a bad dream. It was a living nightmare.

Police reportedly found McAndrew covered in blood around 7 p.m. in the driveway of the home, at the intersection of Holstein Road and Dechert Drive, in Gulph Mills, Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County.

His family members - dad Joseph Sr., 70; mom Susan, 64; and twin brother James, 23 - were apparently found stabbed to death inside the kitchen, and knives and a samurai-type sword were reportedly taken from the house.

When interviewed by police, McAndrew, who was charged with three counts of murder, allegedly called his victims "person named father," "person named mother" and "person named brother," and referred to their deaths as "extermination," according to the Norristown Times Herald, which obtained a copy of the arrest affidavit.

Authorities released absolutely no information on the case yesterday and scheduled a press conference for late this morning.

Yesterday, detectives went door-to-door interviewing neighbors, and a patrol car remained in the driveway of the house all day.

Around mid-afternoon, a woman showed up and took a small black-and-white dog from the house. About 3:30 p.m., a man who arrived at the home via taxi, and is believed to have been renting a room there, loaded several trash bags full of items into a car with Ohio plates that had been parked in the driveway. He drove off, refusing to answer questions except to say that he was not a family member.

Ridings said that she moved to the neighborhood at the same time as the McAndrews - she estimates that it was 35 or so years ago - and that Susan McAndrew quickly became a lifelong friend.

"They were the most wonderful people I ever met in my life," Ridings said, through sobs. "I want to die myself."

Ridings, a native of Colombia, said that after her divorce Susan was "the only one that gave me the hand to help."

She said that Susan taught her how to pay her bills and "do things right." She even drove Ridings to take her test to become a beautician.

She said that Joseph Sr. was a retired teacher and that Susan had worked for the Yellow Pages. She said that James McAndrew, whom she affectionately referred to as "Jamie," had recently graduated from Penn State but hadn't found work yet. Though she used to babysit both boys and changed their diapers, she said that she knew less about Joseph Jr. as time went on.

"Jamie had graduated from Penn State and he was so happy," she said. "But I don't know too much about Joe because he keep to himself and he never went out, he stayed in his room."

So much so that neighbor Jenna Lauman said she thought that the McAndrews had only one son. She said that she didn't know the family well but that she'd seen Joseph Sr. riding his motorcycle and that once, when he saw that her family was cutting down trees, he stopped to offer advice.

"This is horrible," she said. "That guy was full of life and he was all about living it."

Ridings said the same thing about Susan.

"She was so funny," she said. "She had a sense of humor that was unreal. She was a simple, unique person, a hard worker and a good friend."

When Ridings' dog died recently, she said that Susan was the first person she called.

"I was going crazy, she came over here and consoled me," Ridings said.

As they were in the back yard, digging a hole to bury her dog, she said that James came over and gave her a big hug.

"He said, 'I'm so sorry,' " she recalled. "He said the dog was with us, watching us dig the hole. Jamie was so sweet."

When she saw the police lights Saturday night as she drove home, Ridings said, she thought that there had been a car accident. But when she got closer and saw the yellow crime-scene tape, she knew that something much worse had happened.

"I called Sue and I got no answer," she said. "I had just said to her the other day, 'I don't know what I'd do without you.' "

Staff writer Dana DiFilippo contributed to this report.