Allenstown News : Hunter missing

Hunter’s body found in park

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:52:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Almost five months after he disappeared into the thick forest and freshly fallen snow of Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, the remains of Russell Bussiere of Hooksett were found.

“It’s huge closure,” said Michael Bussiere, son of the 70- year-old hunter who went into the woods on Dec. 2 and never came out.

A family friend discovered the body on Sunday, April 27, at around 10 a.m. For the past few weeks since the snow melted, the family has organized weekend searches to comb the woods.

The father and son Bussieres were hunting in Bear Brook in separate locations, using global positioning satellite (GPS) devices and planning to meet at noon back at their parking spot.

When Russell Bussiere failed to show a few hours after that, the search began, led by New Hampshire Fish and Game and lasting for about a week straight when daylight would allow.

More than 200 searchers volunteered to brave the freezing temperatures and deep snow, including the Allenstown Police Department, Army National Guard and canine search teams.

The search was suspended when temperatures began to further chill the New England area and all areas of ground in the state park had been covered. Fish and Game also conducted several searches over the winter months.

Authorities used line sweeps and GPS mapping to make sure they’d hit all of those areas.

Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland said the remains were put through DNA testing and fingerprint comparison. His remains were positively identified on Monday, April 28.

The remains were found in clothes fitting the description, and his rifle was found with him. Also found on the body were Russell Bussiere’s wallet, cell phone and GPS unit.

The body was found about a mile from where the search’s command post was set up on Dodge Road, which is also where the Bussieres had parked, about 45 feet off the trail, Mulholland said.

The night Russell Bussiere, who’d been hunting at Bear Brook for 50 years according to family members, disappeared, the area was hit with about a foot of snow. More fell in the following days, creating a very thick snow cover which may have completely concealed Bussiere, Mulholland said.

He added search teams had been through the area where the remains were found.

“As ironic as it sounds, yesterday was the best day of my life,” said Michael Bussiere during a phone call on Monday, April 28 about the discovery of his father’s remains the previous day.

Michael Bussiere said he wanted to thank all of the agencies and volunteers involved in the search, particularly New Hampshire Fish and Game.

“Thanks for the people who went out looking on their free time. Their efforts were truly appreciated,” Michael Bussiere said.

Mulholland said there will be a standard post-mortem autopsy on the body, but authorities believe it was a natural death. “We suspect it was a medical condition. There is no evidence of foul play or accidents,” Mulholland said.

Michael Bussiere said the family is holding off on services until family members who live in other areas of the country can make the trip.

Allenstown Year in review 2007

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:59:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Chief convicted of stealing
In March, former Allenstown Police Chief James McGonigle entered a guilty plea to stealing thousands of dollars from accounts reserved for the department, the New Hampshire Police Cadet Training Academy and Allenstown Police Association.

McGonigle was sentenced to 12 months for one of the charges and one to three years on two others.

He reported to Concord State Prison on June 8 to begin his sentence.

The charges stemmed from discrepancies in the books, which the department’s executive secretary, Donna Barnett, picked up on. She informed current Chief Shaun Mulholland, a captain at the time, who called the Attorney General’s office to initiate the investigation.

McGonigle, 58 of Concord, stole about $8,000 total from the three agencies beginning in 2000. Cashed checks in amounts from $5 to $1,500 were discovered. Selectmen put McGoSelectmen put McGonigle on paid leave in February 2006.

Also a long-time Concord city councilor, McGonigle resigned from both posts on April 10, 2006.

“It was a very precarious, very difficult situation to have to be in,” said Mulholland, who had to violate department policy which says that the chief must be involved in any internal investigations, to bring the chief to justice.

State police came in to run the department until Mulholland himself could take a lie detector test, which cleared him of any wrongdoing. He was then placed in charge of the department. “It’s not a great point of history in the Allenstown Police Department, but it is what it is,” said Mulholland.

Sewer expansion
A $15 million bond to expand the Suncook Wastewater Treatment plant failed with Allenstown voters a second time at the 2007 election.

The state placed a moratorium on the treatment plant in 2005, preventing any more hookups.

The plant serves both Allenstown and Pembroke, the cost to operate it divided between the two towns based on the number of hook ups. Allenstown owns the facility, and thus is responsible for passing or voting down the proposed expansion.

The town’s Sewer Commission is holding public input meetings on the expansion plan and funding in hopes of getting voters behind it this year. Selectmen have not recommended the article in the two years it has come up.

Resident Armand Verville, has spoken out against taxpayer funding and suggested the money come from sewage users, adding that he is not and would never be hooked up to the town’s infrastructure.

Michael Trainque of Hoyle, Tanner and Associates, the company in charge of the expansion plans, said a combination of federal and state grants could reduce the total project costs by 50 percent or more.

The plant has been taking on septage from other towns in a separate process from the sewer operations to help fund the expansion.

Meth lab?
U.S. marshals and Allenstown police closed in on an alleged methamphetamine lab at a mobile home on Edgewood Drive in August.

Although the home was vacant at the time, a search revealed meth production materials and equipment.

Emergency preparedness
Allenstown police and fire, along with all of its backup authorities, participated in a simulated terrorist attack on Oct. 20.

The attack was staged at Allenstown Elementary School. The scenario they played out was a parent disgruntled over school taxes, shooting several students and staff in the school and setting off a bomb.

Officers, firefighters, dispatchers and other first responders had to react to the events as they unfolded as if it were real.

While they knew it was a simulation, participants were not informed beforehard of the scenario or extent of the operation, and many were troubled at being inside the alarm- and smoke-filled building.

Local Boy Scout troops and other community organizations also participated as actors.

Missing man
An elderly Hooksett man went missing in Bear Brook State Park on Dec. 2 when he apparently got lost while hunting.

Search teams composed of agencies from all over the state looked for any trace of Russell Bussiere, 70, for the rest of that week.

A snow storm and extremely cold temperatures, particularly overnight, caused hope to dwindle that Bussiere would be found alive.

His son, Michael Bussiere, said his father had been hunting for over half a century and knows the state park area where he was hunting well, but many of the searchers and hunters alike said that it is very easy to get disoriented in the woods.

On Dec. 4, about 200 volunteers showed up to participate in line searches of more than 10 square miles of forest. Many of them had to be taken out of the woods when they got wet and cold and could not finish the search.

Teams tracked their progress on a GPS mapping system at the command post and remained in the woods for about eight hours each day.

By Dec. 6, the search had been scaled back to mutual aid agencies only, to ensure the searchers’ safety.

The missing hunter got wide press coverage, drawing Boston and regional news stations.

The family held a press conference on Dec. 6 thanking authorities and searchers for their efforts and expressing their realistic outlook that Bussiere would be found, but not alive.

Michael Bussiere said he would continue to take small parties out to Bear Brook to search for his father and hopes to find him in the spring.

Still no sign of Russell Bussiere of Hooksett after weeklong effort at Bear Brook State Park

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:42:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

After more than a week of extensive searching over rough terrain, 6 inches of snow and thick forest at Bear Brook State Park, search teams have found no trace of a Hooksett man who went missing at the popular hunting grounds on Sunday, Dec. 2.

Avid hunter Russell Bussiere, 70, failed to show up for a meeting with his son and fellow hunter, Michael Bussiere of Pembroke, at around noon that day, prompting the family to call in authorities.

Michael Bussiere said the family is being realistic about the odds against the missing man, but is certain they will find him at some point.

“We’ll find him. We know we’re not going to find him alive, but we’ll find him,” said Michael Bussiere.

He said the family is holding up well under the circumstances, and is grateful for the tremendous search effort headed up by New Hampshire Fish and Game and Allenstown Police that included the Army National Guard, the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, and the help of fire and police from Hooksett and Pembroke.

About 200 volunteers donated their time and expertise for the search effort, including members of Mount Washington Ski Patrol, Henniker fire and rescue and fellow local hunters concerned about one of their own.

The expansive search covered more than 10 square miles, the majority of Bear Brook State Park, and also some “high probability” areas outside the grid search area over a five-day period.

Teams of 10 to 12 lined up, a searcher on each end of the line having a GPS to map the line’s area covered. That information was transmitted back to a GPS mapping system at the command post to ensure all of the ground in the search area was covered.

No traces of Bussiere, such as clothing, makeshift shelters or disturbances in the snow were found during the searches.

Michael Bussiere said his father had been hunting more than 60 years, and that his experience with Bear Brook should have worked to his advantage.

“Russell knows that area better than his house,” he said.

He added that his father is very punctual and reliable, virtues that helped raise a red flag when Bussiere failed to meet his son after hunting that day.

Michael Bussiere also said his father struggles with operating the GPS device he had with him, which may have contributed to his disappearance, but said he does not have any idea what may have happened to his father.

“I’ve used up all my theories,” he said.

Pared-down search efforts continued as of Monday, Dec. 10, according to Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland.

Michael Bussiere said he would continue searching the area throughout the winter with small parties of volunteers, and hopes that spring melting will reveal evidence of his father’s whereabouts.

Russell Bussiere, a dedicated Red Sox fan who was ecstatic to finally see his team win the World Series in 2004, was in the granite curbing business for decades and opened his own business about 20 years ago, Michael Bussiere said.

“Russell was an extremely hard-working man,” he said. “His word was gold.”

Hunter missing in park for days

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 21:48:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Hope was fading on Wednesday, Dec. 5, for a Hooksett man who got lost in Bear Brook State Park on Sunday, Dec. 2. After three nights of snow and frigid temperatures, New Hampshire Fish and Game said it is unlikely Russell Bussiere, 70, is alive.

“Our search commanders and all of the participants in this incident are frustrated and extremely disappointed that we have been unable to locate Mr. Bussiere or find clues as to his whereabouts,” said Col. Jeffrey Gray of Fish and Game in a press release on Wednesday, Dec. 5 at 12:09 p.m. “At this point, we are approaching the limitations of our search and rescue resources.”

As of Dec. 5, the search expanded for a third time to locations adjacent to the state park. A decision on whether to call off the search was to be made late that afternoon. By press time, 15 teams continued searching through the 7 inches of snow, thick trees and rough terrain.

Allenstown police and fire departments, New Hampshire Fish and Game, Hooksett firefighters, state police and about 200 community volunteers have been searching for Bussiere, of 221 West River Road in Hooksett, since he failed to return to a meeting spot while hunting at the 15-square-mile state park with his son, Michael Bussiere, on Sunday, Dec. 2.

Major Timothy Acerno of Fish and Game said authorities were using a GPS mapping system, K-9 units and line searches in their attempts to locate the missing man.

At a press briefing on Monday, Dec. 3, Lt. Kevin Jordan of New Hampshire Fish and Game said Michael and Russell Bussiere parked at a location on Dodge Road and entered the state park’s south end. Equipped with Garmin Rhino GPS navigators and cell phones, they planned on hunting in the area for deer, each making a large circle before meeting back at the car.

The last vocal transmission between the two men was at 10:30 a.m. Russell Bussiere never made it back to the car, prompting his family members to call authorities at 2 p.m.

At 2:30 p.m., a transmission came through the GPS that located the elder Bussiere’s device just a mile from where the parked vehicle, Jordan said.

That location was searched to no avail, as well as areas surrounding it. An attempt to track Bussiere’s cell phone from the closest cell tower could not reveal a specific location.

Authorities fear the batteries on Bussiere’s phone and GPS device have run out, he said, after repeated attempts to locate the GPS and calling Bussiere’s cell phone.

Search teams scoured the area from about 2 p.m. on Sunday until 3 a.m. Monday morning, using the last GPS location as a starting point, but came up with no clues to the elderly man’s whereabouts.

Searchers focused on what Acerno called “high probability areas,” such as trails and streams, or areas that offer resources where Bussiere may likely be found.

By about 4 p.m. on Monday, Jordan said, search teams had covered about half of a 7-square-mile grid search area.

The search resumed at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 4, with added volunteers and mutual assistance to cover an expanded 10-square-mile area. Using a Map Source, a GPS mapping system, searchers’ progress was plotted to ensure all grids in the area would be covered.

Bussiere’s nephew, Richard Emond of Hooksett, brought his son Matt Emond, 18, to participate in the search on Tuesday. “We’re being optimistic and hoping we have a good result,” said Richard Emond, who is also a hunter.

The inclement weather was a concern for authorities, but Jordan said the snow may have actually worked in Bussiere’s favor on Sunday into Monday because it raised the temperature.

Due to weather conditions, the Army National Guard was not able to get its Black Hawk helicopter off the ground to search the state park until Tuesday.

Repeated flyovers revealed nothing about Bussiere’s dissappearance.

Acerno said Bussiere, who is a retired military veteran, a seasoned hunter and frequently works out, is physically capable and resourceful enough to survive the cold and snow overnight.

Bussiere also had some snack foods with him that may have sustained him through the night and possibly matches, Jordan said.

At Monday’s briefing, Jordan said Bussiere’s family members were actively participating in the search. “This man was dearly loved and they’re very concerned and worried,” he said.

When volunteers had to be removed from the search party due to being cold, wet, or otherwise unfit to continue, Jordan announced at a press conference on Dec. 4 that they would not use civilian volunteers to continue on Dec. 5.

“The odds aren’t with him,” said Mike Roberge, a hunter from Goffstown who joined the search party with his black lab, Mandy.

Roberge volunteered because of his kinship with hunters. “Hopefully, someone would do the same for me,” he said.