Also on today’s menu:
‘Missing Child’ Case Becomes Murder Probe
‘Tranq’ Makes Street Drugs More Dangerous
‘Shelling Of Nuclear Plant Must Stop’
Attorney-General John Formella, along with State Police Colonel Nathan Noyes and Northfield Police Chief John Raffaelly announced during a brief news conference on August 11 that authorities have a juvenile in custody in connection with the triple homicide that took the lives of Kassandra Sweeney, 25, and her sons, Benjamin Sweeney, 4, and Mason Sweeney, 1.
They did not identify the juvenile or say how old the suspect is, but said the person will face three counts of first-degree murder and one count of falsifying physical evidence in the Northfield homicides.
InDepthNH.org reported that Senior Assistant Attorney-General Geoffrey Ward did not say the state would be petitioning the court to certify the juvenile as an adult, but he did say the law allows for prosecutors to do so.
‘Missing Child’ Case Becomes Murder Probe
Also on August 11, Formella announced that the missing child case involving Harmony Montgomery is now being investigated as a homicide.
Police still have not found the body of the child, who was five when she disappeared in 2019, but Formella said, “[W]e do have multiple sources of investigative information, including just recently confirmed biological evidence that have led us to this difficult and tragic conclusion.”
The child had been living with her father, Adam Montgomery, and he is being held on charges of assault for allegedly giving Harmony a black eye in 2019, and on unrelated weapons charges. The New Hampshire Division for Children, Youth, and Families had investigated the black eye incident but deemed the complaint “unfounded” at the time.
Kayla Montgomery, who is Harmony’s step-mother, is free on bond after being charged with welfare fraud for accepting benefits for Harmony while the child was not living in the home. Harmony was not reported missing for two years after her disappearance. Kayla also faces weapons charges and a charge of perjury for allegedly lying to a grand jury.
‘Tranq’ Makes Street Drugs More Dangerous
Xylazine, an animal tranquilizer often referred to as “tranq,” is showing up in half of the drug samples that Tapestry Health tests in Massachusetts. It has been showing up in illegal fentanyl and cocaine.
The tranquilizer first surged in Puerto Rico and later in Philadelphia. The Massachusetts Drug Supply Data Stream, a state-funded network of drug-testing and advisory groups that lets people know what is in the bags or pills they purchase on the street, found that 28 percent of their drug samples contained xylazine.
Researchers suspect that xylazine has played a role in the increase of overdose deaths in the United States. Tapestry Health says that the increased presence of the tranquilizer “correlates with the rise, and it correlates with Narcan not being effective to reverse xylazine.”
‘Shelling Of Nuclear Plant Must Stop’
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate end to all military activity around the Zaporizhzhia plant in Ukraine — Europe’s largest nuclear power plant — as Russian and Ukrainian officials have accused each other of shelling the plant. Guterres said any damage could lead to “catastrophic consequences” in the region and beyond.
“I have appealed to all concerned to exercise common sense and reason and not to undertake any actions that might endanger the physical integrity, safety, or security of the nuclear plant,” Guterres said. “Regrettably, instead of de-escalation, over the past several days, there have been reports of deeply worrying incidents that could, if they continue, lead to disaster.”
Support Our Efforts
The News Café is a virtual meeting place where we discuss the news of the day: local, statewide, national, and international.
An offering by the Liberty Independent Media Project, the News Café does not rely on advertising, as most media outlets do, freeing us to provide an independent focus on events and cultural issues. The project instead relies on direct monetary support from donors and subscribers, as well as providing news to other media outlets.
If you like what we’re doing, and want to see more local news you will not find elsewhere, please give what you can.
Subscriptions to this newsletter are available for as little as $5 per month. Subscribers can share their knowledge, thoughts, and questions about any topic, and we may select some of those subjects for more in-depth analysis.
If you’re unable to pay but still want to receive all of the free public posts in your in-box, click the Subscribe button and select a free subscription.