EASTON, N.H. (WHDH) – An Easton, New Hampshire man is facing a second-degree murder charge after officials say he killed his 76-year-old grandmother with a hammer on Saturday.
Officers responding to a reported medical emergency at a home on North Peak Drive around 11 a.m. Saturday found Cynthia Lanchester on the ground, dead, according to a joint statement issued by New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella and New Hampshire State Police Col. Mark B. Hall.
Her grandson, Joshua Lanchester, 23, was later arrested on a second-degree murder charge for allegedly killing her with a hammer. He has been ordered held without bail and is expected to be arraigned Monday in 2nd Circuit Court – District Division in Littleton.
An autopsy is scheduled to take place on Sunday.
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An eagle-eyed photographer captured the moment a shining fireball cut across the sky in southeast New Hampshire early Saturday evening.
Rob Wright, a professional photographer based in New Hampshire, shared dash camera footage of the suspected meteor — which he called a “bright green boldie” — blazing straight downwards while he was cruising through Portsmouth.
“That was one of the best I’ve seen and likely the best I’ve ever caught on camera,” Wright boasted on Facebook.
Dash camera footage captured a fireball beaming in the sky on Saturday. Rob Wright/Storyful
Wright was approaching a traffic circle in the coastal town when a pulsing yellow light appeared in the sky. It tracked downwards in a straight line and released a brighter spurt of light before disappearing entirely, all in the span of eight seconds, according to the video.
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Others in Nashua and Londonderry, both located southwest of Portsmouth and closer to the Massachusetts border, told WMUR that they also saw the suspected meteor.
The “bright green boldie” blazed over multiple towns in New Hampshire. Rob Wright/Storyful
Several other highlighted sightings around the same time in Dover, Bedford, Rindge, Hooksett and Jaffrey, which are all within a 90-mile radius of Portsmouth, according to the American Meteor Society.
Locals who follow Wright’s work reported seeing the fireball, too. One woman who also lives in Portsmouth commented that she “thought it must have been a firework.”
It’s unclear what exactly the fireball was.
It’s unclear what exactly the supposed fireball was. Rob Wright/Storyful
Meteorites present similarly to a fireball when they’re plummeting from orbit — but leave a more obvious impact.
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In August, a 3-foot meteor splintered in the air while it was flying over Georgia and left fragments scattered all over Newton County. The explosion caused a sonic boom equivalent to 20 tons of TNT exploding at once.
Pieces of the meteor were found all over the county, including one that crashed through the roof of a home.
Over the summer in 2024, a meteor disintegrated about 30 miles above Midtown Manhattan. The force shook parts of New York City, rattling midday commuters.
Firefighters from multiple northern New Hampshire communities helped battle a blaze at a home near Loon Mountain on Saturday night.
Campton-Thornton Fire Rescue said in a Facebook post Sunday morning that they responded to the fire on Crooked Mountain Road in Lincoln around 7 p.m. Several other area departments also responded and helped shuttle water to the scene from a site in nearby Woodstock.
No one was home at the time and no firefighters were injured battling the blaze. Fire crews cleared the scene around 4 a.m.
Also: Camper burns at homeless camp; restaurants celebrated; arrests; middle school bomb hoax; Christmas lights; wrestling results.
Photos from some of the most-read stories on Patch in New Hampshire last week. (Tony Schinella/Patch; Jeffrey Hastings; News 603; New Hampshire State Police)
CONCORD, NH — Here are the Top 10 most popular stories and posts from around New Hampshire Patch sites last week.
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