NEWBURYPORT — A Massachusetts man fighting a speeding ticket in court had a unique explanation — the officer’s radar gun may have picked up a deer.
Dennis Sayers, of Haverhill was clocked going 40 mph in 30 mph zone in West Newbury in November. He got a $105 ticket.
He appealed in court on Thursday, asking Officer Royster Johnson if he was 100 percent sure his radar captured Sayers’ speed or the speed of a deer that could have been in the vicinity. When confronted by the skeptical judge, Sayers replied that anything was possible.
The fine was upheld.
Deer, by the way, can run approximately 30 mph.
LITTLETON, N.H. — It’s been nearly 13 years since Maura Murray packed her car, lied to professors about a death in the family and left Massachusetts. The 21-year-old nursing student crashed her car on a rural road in northern New Hampshire and then disappeared.
Since then, some North Country residents have been keeping up the search for her. They are holding a remembrance and informational event in Littleton on Feb. 11. It’s being held at the Littleton VFW.
The UMass student left its Amherst campus on the afternoon of Feb. 9, 2004. She was last seen along route 112 in North Haverhill.
An investigator said before she left, she called several lodgings, and directions to Burlington, Vermont, were in her car.
HOLYOKE — An engineer has recommended that a 116-year-old Holyoke church that was the subject of a battle between the Diocese of Springfield and former parishioners be demolished after pieces of the steeple fell to the ground.
The study released this week says “time is of the essence and full demolition” of Mater Dolorosa church is the only option in the interest of safety.
The diocese closed the church in 2011 due to structural concerns and declining attendance. Parishioners held a round-the-clock vigil for a year after the last Mass and fought the closure all the way to the Vatican’s highest court. The Vatican ruled against them in 2015.
From Associated Press