August 27, 2005

Crypt restored, but probe of crime continues
By Stephanie Chelf
Staff Writer - The Newburyport Daily News

Newburyport DPW sealed up the crypt that Neil Goodwin was charged with breaking into last week in the Old Hill Burying Ground. Ron Keefe puts brick in front of another wall of 6-inch solid cinder block yesterday afternoon. Photo by Bryan Eaton/Newburyport Daily News.

 

NEWBURYPORT — Bodies in a 160-year-old tomb in the Old Hill Burying Ground, desecrated by a vandal last week, can once again rest in peace.

The wooden doorway leading into the tomb that police say Neil Goodwin of Salisbury broke through Aug. 17 has been sealed permanently by a brick wall. City public works employees laid the brick yesterday, and one set of remains has been returned to its proper place.

Goodwin, 19, was arraigned Aug. 25 in Newburyport District Court and is being held on $10,000 bail for felony charges of disinterment of a body and disturbing a grave. He is due back in court Sept. 22.

Goodwin was in the graveyard doing maintenance work as part of a Massachusetts Trial Court community service program, a requirement of his probation for breaking into three Salisbury businesses last year.

Police say he removed the skull of a corpse and several rib bones, photographed himself walking in the graveyard with the skull on his shoulder and spread the remains around the immediate area.

Old Hill Cemetery, founded in 1729, is across Pond Street from Bartlet Mall. Many of Newburyport's 18th and 19th century citizens are buried in it. At least some of the six bodies in the crypt were victims of tuberculosis, a potentially fatal disease that has become relatively rare, but no special precauations were required for handling the remains.

Police Lt. Richard Siemasko said the city's Health Department hired an outside firm to return the remains to the casket. The city is paying the cost to restore the corpse inside the tomb.

"We plan to seek restitution from the suspect," Siemasko said. He did not know the cost.

Siemasko said police are working with a Boston genealogist to find descendents of the Pierce family, who are believed to be the six bodies in the tomb. "We have not yet heard from any family," Siemasko said.

Siemasko said police are looking at how the door of the crypt was broken and if anyone else was involved in the crimes. Police received an anonymous tip Aug. 20 reporting the incident. Police have pictures of Goodwin with the skull, court documents show.

"We haven't ruled out the possibility of other charges," Siemasko said.

The state's Office of Community Correction, which runs the community service program, is investigating how Goodwin strayed from his supervisors, said spokeswoman Coria Holland.

"The level of supervision is not as high as with the sheriff's office," Siemasko said of the trial court program.

The state office revealed this week that the community service workers in its program are typically supervised by their probation officers or trained supervisors.

"It depends on the number of probationers who go out on an assignment working on a project ... how many staff we send out," Holland said. "We adequately match the number of staff with people who go out."

Holland declined to explain how Goodwin could have destroyed the crypt if he was supervised. "I really can't provide you with any information until the investigation is completed," she said.

Holland declined to say when the investigation may be complete. She said she could not recall similar trouble with community service.

Staff writer Adam Martignetti contributed to this story.

This article was copied with permission by © The Newburyport Daily News