A Massachusetts man was rescued by New Hampshire Fish and Game Friday between Mount Guyot and South Twin Mountain after losing the trail he was on and getting stuck in waist-deep snow without snowshoes.

The man, 52, from Acton, set off for a two-day excursion on Thursday. After sheltering just west of Mount Guyot overnight Thursday, he inadvertently got off Twinway Trail while hiking toward Galehead Friday morning. He texted 911 saying that his phone was going to die and “that he had lost the trail and was in deep snow without snowshoes,” NH Fish and Game officials said. 

Conservation Officers and volunteers from the Pemi Valley Search and Rescue Team started a 6.5 mile hike in to the man from Gale River Road in Bethlehem. The NH Army National Guard tried accessing the hiker using a plane, though the weather prevented them from reaching him. 

The rescuers found him a short distance south of Twinway Trail at 5:20 p.m., and they all hiked back to Gale River Road, arriving at 10:05 pm. 

“[The hiker] was extremely grateful for the assistance provided and for the attempt by the NH Army National Guard,” NH Fish and Game said. 

They said that the man was prepared with a tent, sleeping bag, extra clothing, food water, traction devices, the ten essentials, and a Hike Safe card, an NH Fish and Game-issued card that protects holders from having to pay for rescue costs if they need to be rescued. 

“The only item he lacked that would have proven helpful were a pair of snowshoes,” the department said. 

A New Hampshire Democrat who has spent years campaigning to ban child marriage in the state has condemned lawmakers who voted to amend the law to allow 17-year-olds to marry if they or their partner are in the military.

State Representative Cassandra Levesque told Newsweek the amendment recently passed by the GOP-controlled New Hampshire House of Representatives was done “without facts, without evidence of need, and no proof of any child” asking for such an exception.

Newsweek has contacted the New Hampshire Republican Party for comment via email.

Why It Matters

New Hampshire became the 13th state to outright ban anyone under the age of 18 from getting married, with the law coming into effect on January 1, 2025.

No other state that has banned child marriage has attempted such an amendment for military personnel or their partners.

What To Know

The New Hampshire House voted Thursday to approve House Bill 433, which would allow individuals to marry at 17 if either party is on active duty in the military if they have consent from a parent or guardian.

The vote passed 193–178, largely along party lines, with 14 Republicans joining all but one Democrat in voting against the bill. Supporters said the measure would allow minors access to benefits such as military housing, which are otherwise unavailable to unmarried couples.

Levesque was one of those who voted against the amendment. She was just 17 and still in high school when she began campaigning to change New Hampshire’s child marriage laws, which at the time in 2018 allowed girls as young as 13 and boys of 14 to marry with parental and court consent.

Levesque has denounced the attempt to amend the state’s child marriage ban. She said it not only fails to protect children from potentially marrying adults many years older, but also exposes them to “abuse and situations that children are just not prepared to handle.”

The Democrat added the amendment does not consider whether children may be “emotionally or mentally” equipped to care for older military spouses, who may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), loss of limbs, and other physical or mental health conditions that can affect service members.

State Representative Debra DeSimone, one of six GOP lawmakers who sponsored the amendment, said on March 20 that the law change would allow couples and young parents to receive military-provided housing and other benefits.

Representative Dale Girard, the only Democrat who supported House Bill 433, said the amendment would support military families who “may face unique circumstances,” while still largely maintaining the legal marriage age at 18.

Minors are still allowed to marry in a majority of U.S. states. Many permit 16- or 17-year-olds to wed with a parent or guardian’s consent, while others require both parental consent and a judge’s approval. Some states, like New Mexico, allow minors to marry if they are pregnant or already have a child.

Delaware was the first state to ban child marriage in 2018. Others that have followed include Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.

Former New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu signed the state’s ban into law in June 2024, prohibiting anyone under 18 from obtaining a marriage license.

What People Are Saying

State Representative Cassandra Levesque told Newsweek: “A girl who’s being forced to marry a man in the military should get just as much protection as a girl who’s being forced to marry a civilian.

“Being a military spouse can be incredibly isolating, especially if the couple moves far from home and continues moving repeatedly, as often happens. This can deprive children of their network of family and friends, instead embedding them in the service member’s network, which compounds their vulnerability to abuse and situations that children are just not prepared to handle.

“If we are talking about a child marrying an older service member, we need to consider that children are not emotionally or mentally equipped to handle being caregivers to their military spouses. They are not prepared to deal with PTSD, loss of limbs, and the mental disorders that our military often suffer.”

Levesque also highlighted the increased risk of domestic violence in a child marriage.

“We do not allow exceptions to the drinking, smoking, or driving ages; we set those ages based on when people can safely engage in those activities. We should do the same with marriage.”

Representative Dale Girard told Newsweek: “I voted for HB 433 because it provides a reasonable exception for active-duty military members by allowing 17-year-olds to marry under specific conditions. This bill ensures that the age of consent remains 18, but with a provision for military families who may face unique circumstances. It also includes safeguards like parental consent for nonmilitary 17-year-olds, balancing personal freedoms with necessary protections. Ultimately, this bill supports both the needs of military families and the welfare of minors in New Hampshire.”

Representative Debra DeSimone said in a statement Thursday: “Military members can be moved from one base to another frequently. Leaving a potential spouse and possible children unable to avail themselves of possible base housing could prevent a parent’s ability to assist in raising their child, which could seriously affect children, since children historically do better with both parents in their lives. The military does not provide any benefits to a nonmarried partner. This bill also requires written permission from a parent or guardian.”

New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley told Newsweek: “Instead of working with House Democrats to lower property taxes or address the state’s housing crisis, House Republicans are laser-focused on passing a loophole to bring back child marriage after banning it last year. It’s ridiculous, and [Governor] Kelly Ayotte’s silence in the face of yet another national embarrassment from New Hampshire Republicans speaks volumes.”

What Happens Next

The child marriage amendment will now head to the state Senate for a vote. It is unclear whether it will receive the necessary support to pass New Hampshire’s upper chamber.

Update 3/23/2025 10:23 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley.

The New Hampshire attorney general’s office has agreed to a $10 million settlement in the case of a man who alleged that he was gang-raped in a stairwell at the state’s youth detention center in the 1990s.

Michael Gilpatrick’s lawsuit against the state would have been the second of more than 1,300 to go to trial, but instead both sides agreed to settle out of court, his lawyers said Saturday.

The payout is four times the maximum amount available to those who submit claims via the state’s settlement fund for abuse victims, though less than half the amount a jury awarded last May in another lawsuit, the first of its kind that went to trial. The $38 million verdict in that case remains in dispute as the state seeks to slash it to $475,000.

Gilpatrick, now 41, was 14 when he was sent to the Youth Development Center for three years in 1997. His lawsuit accused 10 staffers at the Manchester facility of sexual or physical abuse, including repeated rapes and being choked to the point of unconsciousness.

“There was nobody you could go to at YDC to talk to. You were literally stuck in your own thoughts, in your own fear every single day,” he said in a 2021 interview. “That place turned us into what we were. I can’t say what I am now because I’m a better person now. But coming out of that place, I was a monster.”

In one incident, Gilpatrick said, two staffers held him down in a stairwell while another raped him and a fourth man forced him to perform a sex act. Those allegations resulted in criminal charges against four former staffers whom Gilpatrick called a “hit squad;” two of them have faced trial so far.

Brad Asbury, 70, was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison after being convicted in November of being an accomplice to aggravated sexual assault. But jurors deadlocked in January on whether Stephen Murphy was guilty of rape, leading to a mistrial. Murphy, who denied assaulting Gilpatrick, faces three other trials related to other former residents.

“The four of them used to roll together, and they would go to different cottages and beat kids,” Gilpatrick testified at the first civil trial. “They would literally come over and just go door to door and beat every single one of us, down the line.”

The settlement spares Gilpatrick from what likely would have been another emotionally difficult court proceeding. He also testified at the two criminal trials, at times lashing out angrily at defense lawyers.

He said he did not tell anyone what happened to him at the time because dorm leaders were involved in the assault, and he then spent decades trying to bury his memories.

“Once I was about to accept the fact that it wasn’t my fault and I was able to stop blaming myself, I knew I had to say something,” he testified on Jan. 16.

Eleven former youth counselors have been arrested since the attorney general’s office began investigating the facility in 2019, though charges against one were dropped, another was found incompetent to stand trial and a third died awaiting trial. Two men have been convicted, and another case that ended in a hung jury is expected to be retried later this year.

The Associated Press generally does not identify those who say they were victims of sexual assault unless they have come forward publicly, as Gilpatrick and others have done.

The youth center, which once housed upward of 100 children but now typically serves fewer than a dozen, is named for former Gov. John H. Sununu. Lawmakers have approved closing the facility, which now only houses those accused or convicted of the most serious violent crimes, and replacing it with a much smaller one in a new location.