OFF THE WIRE
BY: Ned Oliver
Source: berkshireeagle.com
bodies of David Glasser, Edward Frampton and Robert Chadwell were found buried on private property in Becket, according to the District Attorney’s office.
Authorities declined to be more specific and released no other new information about the case. Until this week, law enforcement officials had refused to even release the location of what they described as a "burial site," where the bodies of the three men were dumped and covered with boulders and dirt.
Meanwhile, state and local police conducted what they described as a "high visibility patrol operation" Saturday in Lee, coinciding with the Berkshire Chapter of the Hells Angels’ annual party, Lobster Fest.
Adam Lee Hall, who court records list as the third in command of the Berkshire Hells Angels, has been charged with three counts of murder in connection to the men’s disappearance. Otherwise, police haven’t linked the murders to the local motorcycle club, which has put up its clubhouse to cover Hall’s bail in an earlier case, according to court records.
Police from Lee, Great Barrington, Pittsfield, Lenox and Dalton assisted State Police, who watched as motorcyclists from across the region descended on the Berkshire biker’s headquarters on Woodland Road in Lee, just past the entrance to October Mountain State Forest. Also on the scene were the state’s Environmental Police and the county’s Special Response Team.
Police took pictures of everyone entering and exiting Woodland Road leading to the Angels’ clubhouse. Many of the bikers seen in the area wore patches identifying themselves as members of the Hells Angels and other regional motorcycle clubs.
State Police Lt. David Buell, the station commander at the troop’s Lee Barracks, said the club’s Lobster Fest is an annual event. He said police have conducted high-visibility patrols coinciding with the party for the past five years. He said police increased the number of patrols this year in light of the recent murders, but he declined to say how many officers were in the area. Buell said there were no arrests or incidents on Saturday, although he said several neighbors walked up to police in the area and thanked them for being there.
Members of the Hells Angels were not immediately reachable for comment on Saturday. The group’s Facebook page indicated that tickets to the event were $30. It warned visitors to expect heavy police presence.
Glasser, Frampton and Chadwell went missing sometime between Aug. 27 and 28 from Glasser’s apartment on Linden Street in Pittsfield.
Hall, 34, of Peru, David Chalue, 44, of North Adams and Springfield, and Caius Veiovis, 31, of Pittsfield, have been charged with three counts each of murder, kidnapping and witness intimidation. Police said neither Chalue nor Veiovis are members of the Hells Angels.
Police say the men killed Glasser to keep him from testifying against Hall during an upcoming trial in Berkshire Superior Court. Court records filed last week said men’s bodies had been dumped together in a deep trench that had been covered with large boulders and dirt, with digging equipment found nearby.
According to the report, Hall had inquired about the availability and location of excavation equipment in the weeks prior to the murder.