Goffstown shut down after dummy weapon found at suicide victim’s home
BY ROD HANSEN
Fears of a live hand grenade in a car on Cottage Street brought parts of the village area to a standstill for several hours Thursday, Dec. 21.
The grenade proved to be a harmless replica, but the situation did end with a local man dead of an apparent suicide.
The events began shortly after noon on Dec. 21, when a letter carrier alerted police to the home of Norm Guay, of 4 Cottage St.
“The letter carrier found a note from (Guay) indicating that he’d harmed himself,” Police Chief Michael French said during the early stages of the investigation.
Officer Katharine Walsh, the first to respond to the scene, saw what appeared to be a hand grenade in a car outside Guay’s home, said Police Capt. Glenn DuBois. Walsh’s discovery caused police to call in officers from the state police SWAT team and bomb squad, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and additional Goffstown police.
Other precautions included evacuating residents from homes on Cottage and Reed streets, and Elm Street was also closed for a short period of time, DuBois said.
Staff at Maple Avenue Elementary School were directed to take students inside the building from recess, and school bus and car traffic was rerouted during the time of the investigation, said Superintendent of Schools Darrell Lockwood.
“We were informed through direct communications with (French) that there was a situation on Cottage Street, and we enacted our safety plan. People responded accordingly and it was handled very well,” Lockwood said.
Further investigation revealed the item found in Guay’s car to be a nonexplosive reproduction of a hand grenade, DuBois said.
“This was a dummy grenade. It wasn’t a live grenade in any way, shape or form. It was a non-working practice grenade that you could find at an Army surplus store,” DuBois said.
Guay was himself found dead in the residence of a presumed self-inflicted gunshot wound, said DuBois.
Acquaintances who knew Guay remarked on the tragedy of losing a neighbor.
Kristen Mallahan, who lived next door to Guay in the house at 6 Cottage St. for five years, remembered him as a kind if reclusive man who was friendly with Mallahan’s stepfather, David Barber.
“He was a very nice guy. He had an old car he used to drive around called a kit car. He built it himself. It was a two-seat convertible,” Mallahan said.
“We were very devastated when we found out (the shooting victim) was Norm. We never realized how sad and depressed he must have been,” Mallahan said.
A Cottage Street resident who asked not to be identified remembered Guay as a quiet man who kept to himself.
“This is a sad day. It’s sad any time something like this happens,” said the neighbor, who added that Guay had been a model airplane enthusiast.
Guay is listed as a member on the Web site for the New Hampshire Flying Misfits club, an Auburn-based group of radio-controlled airplane flying enthusiasts.
No one from that group could be reached to comment for this article.
Guay’s neighbor said he believed a “series of bad events” had happened in his life, including losing some jobs recently.
Goffstown Environmental Projects Manager Tom Fatcheric verified that Guay had worked at the transfer station for more than a decade, and had resigned his position as a transfer station operator earlier this year.
Fatcheric declined further comment on Guay or on his employment with the town.