September 22, 2024
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Maine man arrested in N.H. beating Police seek suspects in Dover builder’s death

DOVER, N.H. – A second man has been charged in the weekend beating death of Thomas Janelle, a local builder.

Police arrested Daniel Murphy, 21, of Eliot, Maine, Sunday afternoon and charged him with second-degree assault and resisting arrest. They arrested Benjamin Lugo, 18, of Dover about 10 p.m. Sunday and charged him with second-degree murder.

“More arrests are imminent,” Dover Police Chief William Fenniman said Monday.

Janelle was found beaten in front of his apartment at about 11 p.m. Friday. He was released from Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, but was admitted again Saturday and died at the hospital at 7 p.m.

He was taken by ambulance to the hospital on both occasions, according to police.

Lugo was held on $500,000 cash bail. Murphy’s bail was set Monday at $250,000. Assistant Attorney General Brian Quirk said the charges against him probably will be upgraded depending on what investigators find.

Dr. Thomas Gilson, the state’s deputy chief medical examiner, conducted an autopsy Sunday and ruled the death a homicide.

A probable cause hearing is scheduled for Oct. 30.

Neighbors said the attack apparently stemmed from an argument between Janelle and a group of men he found standing near his 2001 blue Corvette and his late-model pickup truck. Janelle went outside and apparently accused the youths of damaging one or both vehicles, which he parked in front of his apartment door.

Friends described Janelle as someone who kept to himself and was respectful to everyone. Janelle’s friends also said he was engaged and has a 6-year-old daughter. He owned Tom Janelle Builders.

“Everyone who knew him here loved him,” said Mary Polchies, a bartender at Jimmy’s Sport’s Bar.

She said he was an “excellent singer who loved karaoke.”

Police said Murphy was arrested in Rochester in July after exposing himself to a young girl. He was convicted of indecent exposure and resisting arrest, and sentenced to 20 days in jail.


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