A man who had been missing for a week was found submerged inside his vehicle in the Connecticut River near the Mt. Orne covered bridge in Lancaster, New Hampshire, this weekend.
The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department says conservation officers located Stephen Paquette’s body Saturday morning, a day after Lancaster police requested the agency do a specialized search of the river.
According to the fish and game department, Lancaster police officers first went to the area on Friday to follow up on information received about the the 41-year-old Littleton, NH, resident, who had not been heard from in a week. While checking it out, officers found a set of vehicle tracks that crossed a hay field and ended at the bank of the river adjacent to Route 135.
Once they saw that, Lancaster police called on the fish and game department for help.
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Around 8:19 a.m. Saturday, a conservation officer using a drone discovered a vehicle in the river near where the tracks ended at the riverbank, officials said. Additional officers were able to then view and search the vehicle under water using a remotely operated vehicle, which confirmed the submerged vehicle was registered to Paquette, and that there was an individual inside of it.
A heavy wrecker was brought to the scene, and fish and game divers hooked up cables to the vehicle under water, which was subsequently winched out of the water and up the bank.
At about 1 p.m., investigators confirmed that there was a single individual within the vehicle and identified him as Paquette, officials said.
Further information about how Paquette’s vehicle ended up in the water were not shared.
Although this investigation culminated in a sad outcome, officials noted that many agencies contributed to the mission, including Lancaster police, Littleton police, state police, marine patrol, Lancaster fire, fish and game and more.
CONCORD, N.H. – New Hampshire lawmakers have moved to reject a Republican-backed proposal to launch an impeachment inquiry into the lone Democrat on the state’s five-member Executive Council.
On Friday, a key committee of lawmakers delivered a unanimous 17-0 vote against an impeachment inquiry into Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill of Lebanon, N.H.
The vote on House Resolution 41 followed an abbreviated public hearing, after the bill’s sponsor withdrew his support for the proposal and instead asked lawmakers on the committee to recommend killing it.
The push for Liot Hill’s impeachment was led by Representative Joe Sweeney, a Salem Republican and the deputy majority leader in the New Hampshire House.
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At issue were several emails Liot Hill had sent from her official account to help a partisan law firm identify voters impacted by a new state law. The law tightened voter ID requirements for absentee ballots.
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Sweeney had previously called Liot Hill’s correspondence “political lawfare run out of a taxpayer-funded inbox.” In December, a review by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office found that Liot Hill’s conduct was not illegal and did not constitute a misuse of office, clearing the complaint against her.
Reached by the Globe on Friday, Sweeney, who was not present at the public hearing, said in a statement he preferred to let voters decide whether Liot Hill should continue to serve in the upcoming November election.
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“After reviewing the matter and hearing the discussion, I believe the appropriate course is to move forward and allow the voters and the political process to do their work,” he said.
“The purpose of filing the resolution was to ensure that the constitutional questions raised were addressed seriously and transparently,” he said, noting that he stands by the process and the decision to recommend killing the resolution.
In an interview, Liot Hill said she was pleased with the unanimous vote from the House Judiciary Committee.
“The committee vote, I think, sends the message that there was no merit to this,” she said.
The proposal now heads to the full House of Representatives, which has the power to approve the committee’s recommendation to reject it.
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Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.
A woman has been arrested in connection with the death of her baby whose body was found in a pond in Manchester, New Hampshire last year. Hepay Juma, 26, of Manchester, is now charged with reckless second-degree murder.
The New Hampshire Attorney General said Juma was arrested for “causing the death of Baby Jane “Grace” Doe, her child, under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life.”
On March 27, 2025, the baby’s body was found floating in the water at Pine Island Park in Manchester. The baby’s death was treated as suspicious following an autopsy.
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Investigators have not released any information about how they made the arrest or how the baby died.
Hepay Juma, 26, of Manchester, NH, is charged in connection with the death of her baby.
Manchester, NH police
At the time, Manchester Police Chief Peter Marr said the baby’s death was “extremely tragic.”
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Police asked the public for help after the baby’s body was discovered. They wanted to know if anyone saw someone discarding anything in the water in the previous 14 days, or if anyone knew a pregnant woman who gave birth during that time who needed medical help.
A funeral was held for baby Grace Doe last May, and the public was invited to pay their respects. “The way she was discarded is heartbreaking, and it is important that we give her a proper farewell,” Chief Marr said last year.
The baby was named Grace by police “to celebrate the kindness extended to her by those who refuse to let her life go unrecognized.”
Juma is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday in Manchester District Court.
