Man recalls finding Boston Marathon bomb suspect
WATERTOWN, Mass. — The man who found the Boston Marathon bombing suspect hiding in his boat in his backyard says he’s no hero and wants the attention he’s drawn to “fade away.”
David Henneberry, 66, of Watertown tells The Boston Globe in a rare interview that he also wants to set the record straight.
Media have reported that the retired technician went to investigate after seeing blood on his boat, which was on a trailer and wrapped for the winter season. But Henneberry said the truth is he never would have approached the boat on April 19 had he seen blood, the paper reported Wednesday.
“If I had seen blood out there, I wouldn’t have investigated it,” Henneberry said. “I’m not crazy.”
Instead, he noticed some padding used to protect the hull of the 24-foot vessel had fallen to the ground, so he went to fix it. He grabbed a stepladder and put it beside the boat, the Slip Away II. When he lifted a piece of shrink wrap, he noticed blood splattered on the deck, then he spotted a man, curled in a fetal position, inside the boat.
It was Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the two brothers suspected of setting off the pressure cooker bombs at the marathon finish line April 15, killing three people and injuring more than 260.
“I thought, `Oh my God, he’s in there,”’ Henneberry said.
He ran inside, looked at his wife and said, “He’s in the boat! He’s in our boat!”
“He was shaken,” his wife, Beth, said. “We were both shaken.”
He called 911.
His actions have drawn unwanted attention. Writers, filmmakers and just plain gawkers stopping by his house.
“It just goes on and on,” Beth Henneberry said.
And the bullet-riddled boat? It’s being held by the FBI as evidence, and an agency spokesman says the Henneberrys are unlikely to be compensated. They did get $1,000 from their insurance company.
“I just want this all to fade away,” David Henneberry said. “I’m not like a rock star who sought publicity. I don’t want any more.”
Tsarnaev remains in custody after pleading not guilty to 30 federal charges stemming from the April 15 explosions. His brother died during the police search for the suspects.