October 17, 2012
By Nancy Arsenault
Michael Lopresti, 47, a longtime resident of Hudson, was found dead late Saturday afternoon, submerged under a dock at Lake Boon, outside a Barton Road home in Stow that he had been renting for the past year. Stow Police received calls from a roommate and Lopresti’s ex-wife, that his three children, spending the weekend at his home, could not find him when they awoke Saturday morning. Stow Police said Lopresti had sent a text at 11pm Friday night, but had not been seen or heard from since.
The Acton canine unit and Stow police, along with concerned neighbors, searched the area around the home on Saturday, while the State Police air wing searched from overhead. The dog followed a scent to the water’s edge, where Lopresti’s shoe was found about 30ft. from the dock. The State Police dive team was called in and within 17 minutes discovered Lopresti’s body.
Stow Police reported that the Middlesex District Attorney’s office and the Medical Examiner’s office are conducting an investigation, but foul play is not suspected. “The cause of death, at this time, appears to be accidental,” said Stow Police Detective Mike Sallese.
Neighbor Watches Burglary in Action
A Crescent Street resident, sitting in his truck in his driveway Sunday night, looked up and saw a hooded male with a backpack, rifling through two vehicles parked in his neighbor’s driveway. A quick call to the police brought two officers to the scene in about forty seconds – in time to catch the burglar red handed.
Joseph Redfield, 26, was arrested and charged with two counts of breaking and entering into a vehicle. Redfield is believed by police to be part of a team of Maynard brothers, suspected of doing most of the car breaks in Stow over recent months. The brothers walk “most of the night” according to Stow Detective Steve Sturtevant, trying door locks and seeing what is left in cars. “They are everywhere,” said Sturtevant. “Acton, Concord, all on foot. We already have pending charges on him, but are still waiting for court dates. He probably won’t get called back for this for a year,” said Sturtevant. That means he can be right back on the street, according to Sturtevant, who added he most likely will be.
As for the Crescent Street incident, the victims, in their 80s, have experienced so many car breaks that they chose not to lock the cars anymore, hoping to save the windows from being broken. “All I can say is, if you are not going to lock the doors, then take your valuables out of the car,” said Sturtevant.
Sunday morning, burglars were targeting homes in the wooded Lake Boon area. A resident on Hale Road looked out a window at 5:30am to see a young man in the yard, but did not call police until later in the morning. That was after another resident on Hale Road came downstairs to find he had startled a burglar who ran from the home, taking with him the purse and wallet left on the kitchen counter.
According to Sturtevant, even in broad daylight, with lights on in a home and the normal signs of people being home, intruders are not being deterred. “The increase in these burglaries is way up in Stow this year,” he said. Luckily for the Hale Road victim, police officer Gary Murphy found the purse and wallet in the brush down at the bank of the lake, with only the cash missing.
Sturtevant said that many young thieves targeting Stow are coming from Maynard, taking wooded paths from the Rockland Road neighborhood in Maynard, emerging in Stow along the backyards of Farm Road, Militia Circle and the northern section of Red Acre Road. “They jump back onto those paths and are right back in Maynard,” said Sturtevant. He echoes what the police have been advising for a long time now. “Lock your doors. Lock your cars and keep valuables out of sight.”