New Hampshire

Documents: Murder Suspect May Have Buried Victim Alive

Recently unsealed court documents reveal that the suspect in a deadly shooting over the summer in New Hampshire may have buried his victim alive.

Richard Tripaldi is charged with the murder of James Brock in Franklin. But the details uncovered in the documents are so disturbing that people in town say the whole story makes them sick to their stomachs.

"I wanted to vomit, it made me shudder to think he was right down the hall from me," said a longtime resident who didn't want to be identified.

She says she has a unique connection to the suspect, who police say shot and killed his friend over the summer.

"Truthfully, he never said a thing to me, not even 'thank you' after what I did for him," she said.

What's being revealed in court documents this week paints a nightmarish picture.

"It's incomprehensible," the woman said.

According to the affidavit, Tripaldi admitted to his sisters that he shot Brock in the head and then buried him while he was still breathing.

"It's horrible," said April Gauthier, another Franklin resident. "You don't hear about it around here."

Tripaldi's sisters went to police and led them to the spot in the woods off Flaghole Road where Tripaldi told them he buried Brock at their campsite.

Investigators discovered a decomposing body, a skull with a bullet hole in it, and a shovel.

"He seemed like a very odd person," said the Franklin resident.

She says a week before the crime, she was the one who revived Tripaldi with Narcan when he overdosed in the building where she lives.

"I brought him back," she said. "To find out a week later what I found out, it was so very unnerving."

Tripaldi allegedly told his sister that he killed Brock for his car, his money and his drugs, a motive Franklin residents say, these days, is believable, and heartbreaking at the same time.

Tripaldi is being held without bail and is due back in court in December. 

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