A New Hampshire man was arrested and charged in connection with his grandmother’s death, according to the state’s attorney general office.
The New Hampshire Department of Justice shared in a press release that 23-year-old Joshua Lanchester was arrested and charged with one count of second-degree murder, after his 76-year-old grandmother Cynthia Lanchester was found dead inside a home in Easton.
Officials said 911 dispatchers received a “phone call for a medical emergency” in the area at 11:41 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 28. After arriving at the home, police found the woman “[lying] on the ground, deceased” and “appeared to be suffering from a blunt force trauma wound.”
At the home, police also “encountered” her grandson, Joshua, who was arrested that evening, after alleging that he “recklessly [caused] the death of Cynthia Lanchester with a deadly weapon, a hammer,” the N.H. DOJ said.
The DOJ did not share any other details into how authorities determined Joshua’s connection to the incident and his arrest, noting that he was being held without bail ahead of his arraignment.
In court on Monday, Sept. 30, Joshua waived his arraignment, and it was unclear when his next court date would be scheduled, WMUR-TV reported.
On Sunday, Sept. 29, the attorney general’s office shared Cynthia’s autopsy results conducted by Associate Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Abigail Alexander in an updated release.
Alexander determined that the her cause of death was “blunt force trauma to the head,” and her manner of death was “homicide.”
According to the office, detectives were still investigating the “exact circumstances surrounding the incident.”
“Investigators are continuing to look into the sequence of events involving Mrs. Lanchester’s grandson, Joshua Lanchester, who was arrested Saturday,” the DOJ said, adding that he “is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.”
One of Cynthia’s neighbors, Robert Andersen, described her to WMUR-TV as “a nice lady” who was “very quiet” and private.
“It is sad,” he added. “When we were going out for a walk earlier today, we saw the yellow tape. Then, when we came back from the walk an hour later, and we saw the cop car sitting there, we knew something was really wrong.”
Another neighbor, Bobbe McIntyre, told the outlet that the incident was “something that very rarely happens,” in the small town: “We have a peaceful neighborhood, and for something like that to happen, it freaks people out, but I know that it’s a rarity.”
