Investigators Looking Into 'Untimely Death' Of Nashua Police Officer
PELHAM, N.H. (CBS) – An autopsy is scheduled for late Thursday afternoon in the case of an off-duty Nashua police officer who died Wednesday night after some kind of mishap at a fellow officer's home in Pelham, New Hampshire.
Prosecutors toured the house on Sherburne Road after an all-nighter by detectives and crime scene technicians -- but the mystery persisted.
"Well, we don't know much yet," said neighbor Charlie Drier. "But I guess they're being thorough."
It was a late-night 911 call that summoned help to the house, owned by Officer Ryan McDermott.
That's where arriving paramedics found another off-duty Nashua officer with what would turn out to be a fatal head injury.
"It's an untimely death investigation," said a tight-lipped Ben Agati, a senior assistant attorney general.
Authorities would not name the dead officer until all of his relatives could be told, but contended his death was not suspicious, did not involve a gun, and appeared to be an accident of his own doing.
They declined to explain further, and neighbors who saw police scouring the back yard overnight and the house Thursday morning weren't convinced.
"A hole in the head infers other things," said Charlie Drier with a skeptical tone.
At Nashua police headquarters, the dead officer's comrades donned black bands over their badges as they awaited autopsy results, which investigators believe will show little more than a strange, accidental tragedy.
"There's always a difference between I can't tell you and what I don't know," Agati said. "But in this instance I have no indication of anything sinister at this time."
Back on Sherburne Road, most neighbors agreed that an officer's death makes for a sad day -- no matter what the circumstances.
"Even if it was an accident it's hard to lose them," said Dorothy Drier.
Nashua police and the New Hampshire Attorney General's office both pledged a media briefing following the autopsy.