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The Dartmouth
March 29, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Police continue investigation

A sales slip found at the Old Dartmouth Cemetery took Hanover Police to a local store in search of the vandals who caused about $10,000 worth of damage to tombstones in the early morning hours on June 23.

Police say the vandals had a party and then overturned 13 headstones, destroying five.

Hanover Police Detective Rick Paulsen said last night that he questioned a clerk at Stinson's Village Store yesterday about the sales receipt.

Paulsen said he suspected the beer was bought at Stinson's, but added that the clerk was unsure if the beer was actually purchased from the store.

Paulsen said the clerk gave the police the tape made by the store's video camera the night before the vandalism.

But police discovered yesterday that the camera had not been functioning and the tape was blank, Paulsen said.

On Tuesday, Hanover Police Sergeant Chris O'Connor said the police discovered the sales receipt for beer in a brown bag found on the knoll at the graveyard.

The knoll was littered with cigarettes and empty beer cans, O'Connor said. The police suspect the vandals had a party with two cases of beer in the graveyard, he added.

Paulsen, who is investigating the vandalism, said "juveniles" overturned 13 tombstones.

A trail of overturned and cracked tombstones led from the vandalism site to the entrance of the Old Dartmouth Cemetery, located next to Full Fare cafeteria in Thayer Dining Hall.

Although Paulsen said last week he suspected juveniles of the damages inflicted upon the newly-restored cemetery, he said he would not rule out College students.

Paulsen laughed and denied a report by WTSL-AM radio in Lebanon last week that the police were fingerprinting the empty cans.

Paulsen had previously said the police would not rule out fingerprinting the cans. O'Connor said Tuesday the cans were in evidence and that dusting them is under consideration.