Police on N.H.-Maine bridge fatally shoot man who allegedly killed wife, find dead child, 8, in his car - The Boston Globe (2025)

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Police on N.H.-Maine bridge fatally shoot man who allegedly killed wife, find dead child, 8, in his car - The Boston Globe (1)

New Hampshire State Police, Ross said, responded to the couple’s address and found the woman deceased. The couple lived in an apartment at 359 Monadnock St., the agency said in a statement.

Around 2:30 a.m., he continued, police located the man’s vehicle on the bridge parked in the southbound lane on the Maine side.

Authorities from both states tried to negotiate with the man, Ross said, but he ultimately exited his vehicle and “raised” a gun. Maine State Police Trooper Craig Nilsen and two New Hampshire troopers “responded with deadly force,” Ross said.

“The male subject was located deceased in the water below the bridge and was declared dead at the scene,” Ross said. “He fell from the bridge. The male subject was recovered by the Coast Guard at that time, almost immediately after falling into the water.”

He said “law enforcement officers on scene located an 8-year-old child fatally shot in the back seat of the vehicle.”

Ross didn’t say who authorities believe shot the child, though he stressed that investigators have developed information showing no law enforcement personnel did.

He did not identify the child, the man, or the woman found dead in Troy.

“It was very clear that the officers that were involved in the shooting did not fire on that child,” Ross said.

Maine authorities said in a follow-up statement that the “troopers involved in the incident are on administrative leave pending the Maine Attorney General’s investigation into the use of deadly force, which is standard protocol.”

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After an hourslong on-scene investigation by police from both states, the bridge reopened to traffic in both directions at 9:47 a.m., according to Maine State Police.

Police on N.H.-Maine bridge fatally shoot man who allegedly killed wife, find dead child, 8, in his car - The Boston Globe (2)

Troy is a small town in Cheshire County, located about 100 miles southwest of Kittery, Maine.

Neighbors in Troy said Thursday the family had recently moved into a duplex-style home. Shortly before 11 a.m., investigators were seen loading a stretcher into a black SUV that later drove away.

A child’s bicycle with training wheels was seen outside the front porch of the unit where neighbors said the family lived. A paper grocery sack sat on the front porch. The entire area near the home was marked off by yellow police tape.

Donna J. Turner, 80, who lives next door, said she thought she might have heard a gunshot overnight but wasn’t quite certain. She got out of bed about 3 a.m. and saw a bunch of flashing lights outside.

Her daughter-in-law, Kay L. Davidson, 55, took her flashlight and walked up the street to see what was going on. Davidson said first responders on scene told her the situation was under control and they’d be there awhile. She thought it was a medical call.

But Turner and Davidson later learned that three people were dead, apparently including a woman at the Troy home.

”It’s sad,” Davidson said. “I can’t believe somebody would hurt an 8-year-old. I mean, I’ve got a granddaughter that age. I’d do anything to protect them.”

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Turner and Davidson said they didn’t know their neighbors, but heard children. The duplex next door was recently built, and those who were residing in the unit where police spent several hours investigating Thursday morning had just moved in about a month ago, Davidson said.

Troy Police Chief David Ellis Jr., who was standing outside the cordoned-off scene on Monadnock Street, said he received a call from dispatchers about 2:15 a.m. and responded along with two other law enforcement officers to the residential scene. They found the woman’s body and confirmed no one else was in Unit A.

Ellis said he’s worked 40 years in Cheshire County law enforcement and this is only about his third time responding to a homicide scene.

As State Police briefed reporters in the afternoon in Kittery, workers and patrons inside the Troy Pizza Barn restaurant paused and turned up the television to watch WMUR’s live broadcast of the press conference. Customers remarked on how sad it was to see the tragedy play out in the small town of fewer than 2,200 residents.

An autopsy to determine the woman’s cause of death is scheduled for Friday morning, New Hampshire State Police said.

Porter reported from Troy, N.H. Travis Andersen of the Globe staff also contributed to this report.

Police on N.H.-Maine bridge fatally shoot man who allegedly killed wife, find dead child, 8, in his car - The Boston Globe (3)

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Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter. John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe.

Police on N.H.-Maine bridge fatally shoot man who allegedly killed wife, find dead child, 8, in his car - The Boston Globe (2025)
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