Home Where Shootings Occurred Remains in Limbo

Editor's note: This is the fourth installment in a five-day series reflecting on the one-year anniversary of the Greenland police shootings.

The fate of the home located at 517 Post Road where the Greenland Police shootings took place a year ago is uncertain, according to town officials and the lawyer who represents its owner, Beverly Mutrie.

Currently, four police officers who were wounded during the drug raid that took place on April 12, 2012 at the former home of Cullen Mutrie are suing his mother in Rockingham County Superior Court.

The plaintiffs – Scott Kukesh, 33, Jeremiah Murphy, 34, Gregory Turner, 32, and Eric Kulberg, 31 – claim that Beverly Mutrie knew about her son's drug trafficking operation and provided him with some of the firearms that he used in the shootings that claimed the life of Greenland Police Chief Michael Maloney.

Attorney Brad Lown of Portsmouth, who represents Beverly Mutrie, filed a motion to dismiss the civil suit several months ago, and Judge Kenneth McHugh now has to decide the issue.

Meanwhile, the house that Beverly Mutrie owns via trust sits vacant and boarded up, with no trespassing signs posted on it. It serves as a painful reminder to town residents of the events that transpired a year ago. But unless Beverly Mutrie decides to sell the property, it will remain as is.

Lown said his client did not furnish her son with the firearms used in the shootings and did not have any knowledge about her son's drug trafficking operation.

According to the New Hampshire Attorney General's Drug Task Force, .

Lown said he recently got Beverly Mutrie's insurance company to hire another lawyer to continue representing her in the case. Attorney Lee Smith of Manchester said he has filed motions to obtain evidence from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau after receiving evidence he requested from the New Hampshire Attorney General's office.

Lown said he has not had any conversations with his client about what she plans to do with the property once the case is settled. If the four police officers were to win the lawsuit by proving that Beverly Mutrie did supply the guns that were used, she might be forced to sell the property to cover their medical expenses.

Greenland Town Administrator Karen Anderson said that while some town residents wish the town could tear down the house, there is really nothing they can do. She said Beverly Mutrie continues to pay the local property taxes and it is totally up to her to decide what to do with the home.

"It's difficult to drive by the house in its current condition," Anderson said.

Complicating matters further is the fact that before it was purchased by the Mutrie family, Anderson said the home was owned by Luther Preston, who was a wonderful town resident held in high regard.

If the town ever obtained the property and tore it down, Anderson said Preston's family might not appreciate that. When asked if the Board of Selectmen has discussed obtaining the property in the future, Anderson replied,

"It's not a property that the town would want to own."

Selectmen Chairman John Penacho said he would like to see the property redeveloped into something positive.

"I'm not sure demolishing it will ever erase the memories anyway," he said. "I don't want to see it the way it is now."

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