The Terrible Toll With a Unengaged Police Force
By ALYSSA DANDREA Sentinel Staff
Posted: Friday, August 1, 2014 12:00 pm
SentinelSource.comThe N.H. Attorney General’s Office has released a nearly 1,300-page report detailing the authorities’ probe of a 2012 homicide in Chesterfield.
The report sheds new light on the relationship between the prime suspect and the victim, and includes statements from acquaintances who say they both had struggles with drugs.
This spring, the authorities concluded Douglas M. Farr Jr., 32, of Hinsdale shot and killed Mark T. McAuley, 39, also of Hinsdale, on April 14, 2012. From the beginning, Farr had admitted to the killing, according to N.H. State Police investigators. Farr claimed to investigators that he shot McAuley in self-defense.
McAuley’s body was found one-quarter mile south from the Bradley Road and North Hinsdale Road intersection, according to police.
An autopsy revealed McAuley had been shot multiple times and suffered wounds to his lower back, left underarm, left shoulder, right hip and head, according to documents included in the case file.
The shooting occurred in a secluded network of old logging roads in Chesterfield known as the “spider web.”
The Sentinel filed a Right-to-Know request seeking a copy of the report more than one year ago, after Farr died in a fiery car crash on Keene’s Route 12.
And although the Attorney General’s Office wrapped up its investigation into the fatal shooting in May, The Sentinel just received the documents by mail Thursday.
Farr was never arrested, because of a lack of eyewitnesses and because investigators needed time to probe the relationship between Farr and McAuley, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
But while the investigation continued, Farr and his fiancee, Erin Breault, 35, of Hinsdale, were killed May 3, 2013, when Farr swerved into the oncoming lane of traffic on Route 12 and collided with an oil tanker head-on near the Routes 9-10 interchange in Keene. Both Farr and Breault were pronounced dead at the scene.
Keene police later determined Farr was distracted by his cellphone at the time of the crash.
The authorities considered Breault a material witness in the homicide investigation. She had one child. Farr is survived by his three children from a previous marriage, and was involved in a lengthy court dispute over custody of the children and child support at the time of his death.
In the year between the shooting and Farr’s death, police made multiple, yet unsuccessful, attempts to interview Farr; his attorneys, including public defender Caroline L. Smith, told police he was unavailable, according to the report released Thursday.
Interviews State Police conducted with key witnesses about the homicide, before and after the fatal crash, tell varied and convoluted tales about Farr and McAuley’s relationship, as well as how and why they came to be in the North Hinsdale Road area April 14, 2012.
That morning, Hinsdale police received a phone call from Farr’s mother, Monica Burdette, saying she could not find her son and he was “upset,” according to the authorities.
Shortly before 2:30 p.m., Chesterfield police learned of the shooting through a broken 911 call, in which someone reported that a man had been shot. Within minutes, an officer responded to the area of North Hinsdale Road and met with Farr, who was found in Burdette’s vehicle with Breault and Burdette.
Farr was crying, visibly upset and had a gunshot wound to his shoulder, the authorities said. A .40-caliber pistol belonging to Farr and a loaded magazine were inside the vehicle, according to the AG’s office.
It was then that Farr told police “there was another guy in the woods,” and that he’d shot him, according to a May news release from the Attorney General’s Office.
That brief summary is just a glimpse into what the authorities learned may have happened in the woods off North Hinsdale Road that April day.
Initial reports to police from Burdette and Breault suggest McAuley had used zip ties to strap Farr to a tree before shooting him in the shoulder. Farr also allegedly told the women that he was able to cut himself free with a knife McAuley dropped, and that he shot McAuley with the same gun, which Farr owned.
But investigators told Breault and Burdette there were gaps in the story and that the pieces of the puzzle didn’t add up.
Documents show police found black zip ties in McAuley’s hand and near his body, and that those ties matched the 39 discovered in a small baggie in Farr’s vehicle. J & J Autobody of Troy repossessed Farr’s 2005 Chevrolet Blazer April 23, 2012, because of nonpayment of an automobile loan, and mechanics discovered the zip ties during an inventory of the car.
The Sentinel is continuing to study the 1,297 pages released Thursday by the AG’s office in an effort to provide answers to many looming questions, and to give a glimpse into the information provided by those who knew Farr and McAuley.
The Attorney General’s Office redacted personal identifying information and medical information under exceptions allowed in the Right-to-Know law and through the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. They also did not include an interview with a minor, criminal records and certain photographs that would constitute an invasion of privacy, according to a letter dated Monday from the AG’s office.
State Police conducted several searches during their two-year homicide investigation, to include Farr’s residence; McAuley’s residence; Breault’s vehicle; the vehicle belonging to Farr’s mother; and various cellphones and accompanying records.
Seven months prior to the homicide, Farr was shot by his then-7-year-old son at their Hinsdale home. The authorities have remained quiet about the shooting, but Farr’s fiancee agreed to go on the record April 14, 2012, to police about what she claimed happened.
She described Farr as an avid hunter, who frequented shooting ranges, including a spot near where the homicide occurred.
On that October day, Farr got out one of his rifles to show the boy, Breault told police.
She remembered seeing the boy sitting on the couch as he played with the bullets, but didn’t believe the gun was nearby. But next thing she knew, the boy was pointing it at Farr’s chest.
When he fired it, a bullet tore through Farr’s shoulder, Breault said in that April 2012 interview.
And after that day, Farr’s shoulder never healed due to reoccurring — and somewhat mysterious — infections, she said. He also became addicted to prescription pain medication, specifically Oxycontin and oxycodone.
The couple had experienced difficult times financially, and, in an attempt to bring in money, Farr began dealing in drugs, according to Breault. Meanwhile, his own addiction advanced, she told police.
Breault and Farr’s mother, Burdette, had speculated in interviews with police that the April 14, 2012, shooting was drug-related. Acquaintances of Farr’s told police Farr had driven McAuley to the North Hinsdale Road area for a drug deal that went bad. Multiple witness reports indicate Farr and McAuley were in the same car, owned by Breault.
McAuley and Farr knew each other through mutual friends, and lived just 3 miles apart at the time of the shooting.
McAuley had dated Katherine G. LeVasseur, who told police she had been friends with Farr since grade school and that she and Farr had reconnected about three years prior to the shooting.
Alyssa Dandrea can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1435, or adandrea@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @ADandreaKS.
