Matthew Will is treated by paramedics after being arrested on warrants related to over 50 alleged larceny- and fraud-related crimes across Plymouth county and beyond. (Photo by Abram Neal)

PEMBROKE — Matthew Will, 38, owner of 5-Star Discount Roofing in Halifax, was arrested at his rental home on Furnace Colony Drive, Pembroke, at about 5:30 p.m., Thursday, May 9 after a dramatic chase and a tense standoff with police.

Will allegedly fled after he missed a Falmouth District Court arraignment, then was arrested May 4 in Rockland — after escaping from police and leading them on a multi-town high-speed chase from Worcester County into Rhode Island the night before.

He was then released by a Hingham District Court judge, John Stapleton, who had not been made aware of the chase by court personnel, according to audio of the hearing, fled again and was finally re-arrested Thursday, May 9, after a tense standoff with police in Pembroke.

Will was expected to appear Monday, May 13, at 9 a.m. in Wareham District Court, with transportation provided by the Plymouth County Sheriff’s department, who have also provided his lodging since his Thursday arrest.

But he was not transported Monday to Wareham District Court by the department as ordered by a Plymouth judge Friday, and a Wareham court officer who said he had knowledge of the situation indicated Will had refused to come out of his cell at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, had sustained an injury there and was being treated at a Boston hospital.

A Plymouth County Sheriff’s department spokesperson, Karen Barry, said that Will had not sustained any injury at the jail, but said he was in their custody. She would not confirm if he was being treated for an injury sustained outside of the jail and would not confirm his next court appearance, citing CORI protections for prisoners.

Neighbors watched Thursday afternoon in the quiet neighborhood overlooking Furnace Pond as Hanson, Pembroke, and Middleboro police, as well as Plymouth County Sherriff’s Department and police canines executed an arrest and search warrant on Will and his house. When police searched the house for Will, he attempted to avoid arrest by hiding in his attic, according to police at the scene.

Will’s girlfriend, Tina Bowles, and several of their young children, identified by neighbors, could be seen standing in their side yard during the more than two-hourlong standoff. Police said they did not believe that Will was dangerous, although many law enforcement personnel were seen in bullet-proof vests waiting outside the home for Will to respond.

The father of five could be heard screaming obscenities at law enforcement officers as police dogs with cameras on their backs were sent into the attic to capture him. A police officer described a chaotic scene inside the house just after Will’s arrest and said that Will was bitten by the dogs and had fallen through his attic ceiling into his living room.

Matthew Will and Tina Bowles’ rental home on Furnace Colony Drive in Pembroke was searched by authorities Thursday, May 9. (Photo by Abram Neal)

He was led in handcuffs from his home into a waiting Pembroke Fire Department ambulance and taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth, where he was treated overnight for his dog bite-related injuries. He was discharged the next morning, into the custody of the sheriff’s department.

John Canavan, a Plymouth District Court judge, Friday, May 10, ordered Will held at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility over the weekend and that he be transported to Wareham District Court to address his warrants in that court. The department did not transport him for reasons the Express cannot confirm.

The roofer was wanted on warrants in connection with a series of alleged larceny- and fraud-related crimes across Plymouth county and beyond, with at least 50 households allegedly victimized in Duxbury, East Bridgewater, Falmouth, Hanson, Kingston, Middleboro, North Easton, Pembroke, Plympton, Rockland and Wareham.

Funds allegedly collected for work not done total more than $200,000, say court records. The vast majority of the alleged victims are elderly and live in Middleboro, concentrated at Oak Point, a 55-plus community Will allegedly targeted.

The investigation began with Middleboro Detective Simone Ryder and multiple agencies are now investigating Will, including Hanson police.

Will skipped a Falmouth District Court arraignment April 10, on charges that he allegedly took more than $55,000 from the owner of a Falmouth apartment complex, according to the reported victim, Joel Mazmanian, who resides in California but manages property in Massachusetts. The court issued a bench warrant for Will’s arrest. He next did not appear for a hearing in Wareham District Court on ongoing cases, prompting that court to issue arrest warrants, as well.

Will fled the county, court documents say, and was next spotted by police May 3 in Hopkinton, in Middlesex County, where a Hopedale police report says he was stopped by police. He was ordered out of his vehicle, according to the report, but fled from the scene.

Police did not give chase because there were children in the vehicle, Hopkinton Deputy Police Chief Joseph Bennett said to the Express.

Later that day, in Hopedale, in Worcester County, Will failed to stop at a stop sign, twice. A Hopedale Police Department report describes a multi-agency car chase that ensued involving the Bellingham, Hopkinton, Hopedale, Mendon, Millville and Woonsocket, Rhode Island, police.

The report was written by Hopedale Police Sergeant Mark Rizoli.

After being followed by Rizoli for about a quarter of a mile, Will, driving his mother’s 2006 Buick Lucerne, stopped in the middle of the road. The officer said he observed what appeared to be a female passenger and two rear seat passengers.

Police later discovered Will had three of the five children Will shares with Tina Bowles with him. The sergeant on the scene said they began making “furtive movements,” which prompted Sgt. Rizoli to attempt to stop the car, he said.

Next, “ … he accelerated to a speed I estimated to be 70-80 mph. Due to the fact it was dark, wet, and that Blackstone Street is [a] narrow and curvy road I decided to maintain a speed of approximately 40-45 mph, as I felt it unsafe to travel at a higher speed. I subsequently lost sight of the vehicle … ”

Blackstone Police were able to locate Will, but he was able to escape them, as well, and his vehicle was observed fleeing into Rhode Island. Woonsocket, Rhode Island, police gave chase, but Bowles later told police Will ran up a long driveway on foot. Bowles was stopped by police driving Will’s mother’s car with their children in Bellingham later that night, police reports say.

Early the next morning, Saturday, May 4, Will was arrested at a residence in Rockland by the Rockland Police department. Will traveled from Rhode Island to Rockland via a ride sharing service, said a source close to the investigation and Bowles was present at the Rockland arrest, according to court documents.

He was held at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Plymouth over the weekend, and was transported to Hingham District Court Monday, May 6, by the sheriff’s department.

Although there were no open cases for Will in that court, as he was arrested on open warrants in Rockland, and Rockland is in Hingham District Court’s jurisdiction, Will was transported to that court, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

Will’s case was called at 10:34 a.m., in Courtroom 1, before Stapleton, according to audio of the hearing requested by the Express. Neither a police prosecutor for Rockland, nor any commonwealth attorney can be heard addressing the judge.

Only Will’s court-appointed attorney, whose name is indecipherable in the recording, speaks to the judge, and he does not address the high-speed chase with Stapleton, only the outstanding warrants in Wareham and Falmouth.

Stapleton freed Will after two minutes, only checking to make sure that he had a ride to Wareham to clear up his warrants in that court at 2 p.m. Bowles, who the defense attorney tells the judge is Will’s wife, says she has her keys and a license in the recording, which the judge asks a court officer to check.

Will left Hingham District Court free, did not attend his 2 p.m. hearing in Wareham District Court, and warrants for his arrest were reactivated. He spent the next three days a fugitive from justice until he was arrested in Pembroke.

Why Will is where and when he’ll be back to court has yet to be independently confirmed by the Express.

Contact Abram Neal at abe@whphexpress.com or follow him on twitter @nealabe

The Hanson Board of Selectmen. (Photo by Abram Neal)

HANSON — Voters passed a 31-article Annual Town Meeting warrant and a 12-article Special Town Meeting article warrant on Monday, May 6, 2019 at the Hanson Middle School. Although all of the votes were nearly unanimous, except for one during the STM that required a count, there was still some passionate discussion on the floor of the meeting, although ultimately the meeting was mostly uncontroversial.

The nearly $27 million budget passed unanimously, almost breezily, to cheers from the audience.

But articles six and seven, which funded the recreation department and the transfer station prompted passionate discussion and some parliamentary maneuvering.

The Finance Committee moved the articles as they had recommended them, not as the selectman had, with less money than the departments had asked for, only funding the departments through October until the budgets could be looked at again at a Special Town Meeting.

Chairman of the Finance Committee Kevin Sullivan said that the Recreation Department and the Transfer Station need to be self-sustaining entities.

Arlene Diaz, chair of board of health, moved an amendment on the floor for more money than proposed to fund the transfer station, but the amendment failed nearly unanimously after town officials said this would throw off the delicately balanced budget, and articles six and seven passed nearly unanimously.

Questions arose during discussion of Article 10, proposed by the Capital Improvement Committee, about whether a fiber network, one of nine capital items listed, would link the school buildings to the town buildings. It would not, but the article passed nearly unanimously.

Selectman Matthew Dyer opposed resurfacing the Whitman-Hanson Regional High School track, part of Article 11, saying after the meeting that they could have added another percentage point to the school budget and kept teachers for that amount of money, although he did not clarify his position on the meeting floor. Article 11 passed nearly unanimously.

Article 11, all capital improvements to the schools, passed nearly unanimously.

The police and fire departments received $48,500 with Article 15 to cover the cost of sending 20 police officers and 18 firefighters to active shooter hostile event response training. The article, moved by Fire Chief Jerry Thompson, passed unanimously.

By the time article 20 rolled around, things started moving more quickly as people appeared to get more tired and the hour grew late.

The Hubbell/Litecontrol property donated to the town was nearly unanimously accepted by the Town Meeting with Article 22, over the objections of Selectman Laura Fitzgerald-Kemmitt, who was the only member of the board to vote not to recommend the donation.

Article 23, to implement Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, was passed over on the recommendation of the Board of Selectman, the only article to be passed over in full.

Finally, a lengthy article bringing zoning bylaws into harmony with the general bylaws implementing a marijuana retail sale ban, was passed nearly unanimously by the body.

Maura Murray, pictured on a missing persons poster. (Courtesy image)

A lack of evidence during an excavation in a New Hampshire basement crosses something off the list of questions surrounding Hanson native Maura Murray, a family member says.

Despite a day of hope last week, no evidence was found in the search for Maura Murray, a Hanson resident and UMass Amherst student missing for 15 years. After an extensive search of a long-suspected house close to where the 21-year-old Murray was involved in a single-car crash along Route 112 in February 2004, New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey A. Strelzin made the announcement Wednesday, April 3.

Maura Murray’s half brother, Kurt Murray, 30, of Halifax, said in a later interview that his family was given less than 24 hours’ notice regarding the imminent search of the basement. He said it was important to him and his family that they be there.

No evidence was found in connection with the case, said Strelzin, and, “certainly no evidence of human remains.”

Kurt Murray said, “No scenario is a particularly good one,” when asked what the family was hoping to find.

The Murray family has been critical of law enforcement over the years, blasting authorities for not doing enough to find Maura.

Officials from the New Hampshire State Police, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office and the FBI searched the house at times over the month of March, culminating in law enforcement tearing up a basement floor April 3 with a jackhammer, with the present homeowner’s consent.

“We certainly did not believe there was any credible evidence,” but searched anyways, said Strelzin. “It was really done to cross something off a list.”

“There certainly wasn’t any probable cause to search the house,” he added.

But, he said, “Everybody involved remains committed to following every lead that’s out there. There’s a lot of information we continue to follow up on.”

Kurt Murray said of the next step for his family, “We’ll have to try to work with New Hampshire authorities.”

The nursing student’s mysterious disappearance has sparked attention in the press, on the internet and on social media over the course of the last decade-and-a-half across the world.

“The community support has really been astonishing,” said Kurt Murray.

Her father, Fred, said that the house that was searched was “astonishingly close” to the site of the accident, in a previous interview with the Express. According to him, locals first tipped him off about suspicious activity at the house in the first year after his daughter’s disappearance, including a rumor of new concrete being poured in the basement, but the owners of the house would not cooperate with the investigation.

In November and December 2018, Fred Murray brought in two trained, accredited cadaver detecting dogs to the house, after it had changed ownership, each one on separate occasions. They alerted, he says, by lying down in the same spot in the basement of the house.

Later, he brought in ground-penetrating radar which he said indicated strong findings of an abnormality in the same spot in the concrete.

“It’s astounding that this [basement] wasn’t looked at before. I told the police about this in the first year … the State Police did an inadequate job when my daughter first went missing,” he added.

Exactly where Maura Murray was headed, and why, has remained a mystery over the years. Moments after the crash, a good Samaritan stopped to assist her, but she waved him off and told him not to call the police, according to original police reports from 2004. The passerby called local police anyway, although he did drive off. A Haverhill police cruiser arrived 19 minutes later, but Maura Murray’s Saturn was locked, and she was gone. She has remained missing ever since.

“The case is still open and active.  We do receive tips and information periodically, as well as generate new information from investigative efforts,” said Streizen in a previously emailed statement.

But this does not satisfy Kurt Murray. “Not knowing for 15 years … she deserves to be home. She’s too special a person to be left unfound somewhere,” he said.

Maura Murray, pictured on a missing persons poster. (Courtesy image)

HAVERHILL, NH — Despite a day of hope, no evidence has been found in the search for Maura Murray, a Hanson resident and UMass Amherst student missing for 15 years. After an extensive search of a long-suspected house close to where the 21-year-old Murray was involved in a single-car crash along Route 112 in February 2004, New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey A. Strelzin, Wednesday, April 3, made the announcement.

Officials from the New Hampshire State Police, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office and the FBI searched the house at times over the month of March, culminating in the tearing up of a basement floor today with a jackhammer, with the present homeowner’s consent.

No evidence was found in connection with the case, said Strelzin, and, “certainly no evidence of human remains.”

The Murray family has been critical of law enforcement over the years, blasting authorities for not doing enough to find Maura.

“We certainly did not believe there was any credible evidence,” but searched anyways, said Strelzin. “It was really done to cross something off a list.”

“There certainly wasn’t any probable cause to search the house,” he added.

But, he said, “Everybody involved remains committed to following every lead that’s out there. There’s a lot of information we continue to follow up on.”

The nursing student’s mysterious disappearance has sparked attention in the press, on the internet and on social media over the course of the last decade-and-a-half.

Her father, Fred, said that the house was “astonishingly close” to the site of the accident, in a previous interview with the Express. According to him, locals first tipped him off about suspicious activity at the house in the first year after his daughter’s disappearance, including a rumor of new concrete being poured in the basement, but the owners of the house would not cooperate with the investigation.

In November and December 2018, Fred Murray brought in two trained, accredited cadaver detecting dogs to the house, after it had changed ownership, each one on separate occasions. They alerted, he says, by lying down in the same spot in the basement of the house.

Later, he brought in ground-penetrating radar which he said indicated strong findings of an abnormality in the same spot in the concrete.

“It’s astounding that this [basement] wasn’t looked at before. I told the police about this in the first year … the State Police did an inadequate job when my daughter first went missing,” he added.

Exactly where Maura Murray was headed, and why, has remained a mystery over the years. Moments after the crash, a good Samaritan stopped to assist her, but she waved him off and told him not to call the police, according to original police reports from 2004. The passerby called local police anyway although he did drive off. A Haverhill police cruiser arrived 19 minutes later, but the Saturn was locked, and Maura Murray was gone.

“The case is still open and active.  We do receive tips and information periodically, as well as generate new information from investigative efforts,” said Streizen in a previously emailed statement.

Murray’s family members could not be reached for immediate comment.