State Police Help Capture Salisbury Assault Suspect

At 5:22 a.m. today, Massachusetts State Trooper Barry Nangle located a gold Dodge Caravan parked in the weigh station on Route 95 southbound in Rowley. State Police had been searching for the vehicle since its involvement in a domestic assault in Salisbury approximately 45 minutes earlier.

At approximately 4:39 a.m., Salisbury Police had been notified of an assault by a man on a woman outside a Sunoco gas station on Elm Street (Route 110). A witness observed the man strike and attempt to choke the victim, and then put her into the Caravan, which had New Hampshire plates, and drive away. Responding local officers found evidence of a violent crime in the parking lot. Subsequent information led to tentative identification of the man as a 38-year-old Haverhill resident and the woman as a 26-year-old New Hampshire resident. Troopers Nangle and Matthew Heaphy, who are assigned to the State Police barracks in Newbury, had been looking for the vehicle since that time.

After locating the Caravan, Troopers Nangle and Heaphy, along with two Georgetown officers, approached it on foot. The found no one inside, but observed blood in the minivan. That discovery prompted immediate response from State Police K-9 units, additional Troop A patrols, and a helicopter from the State Police Air Wing, along with Georgetown and Rowley officers, all of whom began searching a wooded area adjacent to the weigh station. Meanwhile, members of the Essex County State Police Detective Unit and State Police Crime Scene Services Section responded and began processing the Caravan and the adjacent area as a crime scene.

When the search of the wooded area proved negative, Troopers and Officers began searching an adjacent residential area. Eventually, at 9:19 a.m., Boxford Police located the suspect and victim behind a home at 57 King George Drive in that town. Boxford officers, with assistance of State Trooper Matthew Topping of the Newbury Barracks, took the man into custody. The woman had suffered multiple stab wounds, and was transported by ambulance to Beverly Hospital.

The suspect was transported first to the Boxford Police Station, and then to Salisbury, where he will face charges related to the assault. State Police are not releasing the names of the defendant or the victim. For more information, please contact the Salisbury Police Department.

No further information is available at this time. Please do not call the barracks directly