A New Hampshire man is in custody on murder charges in connection to the brutal death of his father 22 years ago, authorities announced this week.
In a press release, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office announced that a collaborative effort involving the state’s cold case and major crime units led to the arrest of Douglas Herlihy, 39.
His father, Paul Herlihy, 50, was found dead inside of his home in the community of Milford in August 2003. His cause of death was ruled as blunt force trauma. Due to his decomposing remains, investigators had been unable to pinpoint his exact date of death.
On Tuesday, his son was arrested in Saugus, Massachusetts, on an outstanding warrant. He will be extradited to New Hampshire. The warrant for Herlihy was issued on Monday.
The suspect was just 18 years old when his father was killed.
It was widely reported at the time that Paul Herlihy moved his son to Milford from Massachusetts in December 2002, as his son had gotten into legal troubles. The slain man had been planning to turn the home where he was found dead into an antiques store. In 2018, friends of the dead man told The Nashua Telegraph that he was a “devoted father who wanted to get his son out of Massachusetts and away from his drug connections.”
Hours after police discovered his body during a welfare check, Herlihy was arrested in Massachusetts for receiving stolen property as he was driving his father’s 1995 Lincoln Continental. He attempted to flee from the arrest, according to reports from the time.
Herlihy was never considered a suspect in the father’s death, officials said. After the initial arrest, he was released into his mother’s custody, alongside his three other brothers. His parents were divorced. A few months later, Herlihy received a suspended sentence for stealing his father’s car.
In 2003, Herlihy’s lawyer, Michael Natola, told the Associated Press that his client fled from the police because he didn’t know why they were looking for him and that an officer had pointed a gun at him.
“I had to tell him that it was because they suspect that his father was dead, that it was a suspicious death, and that they wanted to question him about that death, and when I told him that he broke down in tears,” Natola said.
“[Herlihy] told me he had absolutely nothing to do with the death of anyone anywhere,” Natola added.
A senior official in the attorney general’s office told the agency that police were seeking Herlihy as a potential witness to his father’s death. Blood on Herlihy’s clothing was later deemed to have come a cut he suffered while working on a car the previous evening.
The suspect was out on bail at the time of the brutal crime on drug charges stemming from an arrest in Lynn, Massachusetts. He had been working for his father as a carpenter and laborer. Due to a learning disability, he was due to sit the 10th grade in a special education school in the fall of 2003.
In one court appearance at the time, Herlihy was described as showing “little respect” for the judge while his father was “soft-spoken and distressed.”
Officials told The Telegraph in 2018 that the police had been called to the Herlihy home nearly 40 times over a three-year period for various disturbances.
Bill Herlihy, Paul’s brother, told the newspaper that he never believed his nephew could be connected to the death, calling him “just a goody teenage kid.”
He was the last person to see his brother alive, dropping the pair off at an Italian restaurant for dinner in Massachusetts shortly before the tragedy unfolded.
In 2010, Herlihy was arrested on heroin possession and breaking and entering charges.
Speaking about the reasons for this, former police chief Richard Melo told WMUR this week that the reason the victim’s son was not arrested at the time is likely because there was simply a lack of evidence.
Melo speculated that the reason for the arrest this week could be the result of a new witness coming forward.
“It could have been that is an eyewitness or some sort of close witness that did not come forward at the time and came forward years later and gave information that was crucial to putting a case together and eventually making an arrest,” Melo said.
