Freetown home where murder committed drew 205 police calls in 10 years

FREETOWN — Frank Bergeron noticed that police and fire vehicles had responded to his neighbor's house at around 4:30 a.m. last Wednesday.

He had just awakened when he observed the commotion next door at 92 Chace Road. Then he went back to sleep.

"I just thought - oh, the cops are there again," he said.

Bergeron didn't think much of it even later in the morning when state police were on scene.

It took someone to call him and tell him that his neighbor, Heidi Chase, had been murdered before he became aware of the tragedy.

"Before that, I still thought, oh, it's just a regular day," he said.

That's because, Bergeron said, he's been warning of a tragedy in the making at the property for years.

"It's been a problem for at least a decade. This has been craziness," he said.

What happened there: Freetown man accused of bludgeoning death of Heidi Chase. He faces a murder charge.

Bergeron is a life-long Freetown resident who has lived next door to 92 Chace Road in E. Freetown with his family for close to 20 years.

He told a former town building inspector two years ago "someone is going to die there," he said.

"Whatever problem people have about a neighbor - they're painting their house a certain color or their dogs are barking - this is not that."

Bergeron said allegations associated with that address over the years have included drug dealing, domestic abuse, animal abuse and animal cruelty, as well as more serious crimes.

Police called to home more than 200 times

Freetown Police Chief Scott Rose said there are 205 log entries for 92 Chace Road during the past 10 years.

That's every call, he said, including medical emergencies, serving papers, or someone just wanting to speak to an officer.

But among the numerous calls are criminal investigations.

There are 39 police reports that have been generated by the calls, he said. Once again, they're not all criminal reports, he said.

But it's documented that Freetown Police have responded to disturbances at the house, including disorderly person, trespassing, and illegal burning. There have been a number of warrant arrests. There have been animal cruelty complaints and investigations, as well property crime reports, including for larceny, malicious destruction, and bylaw violations.

Rose said a motor vehicle pursuit ended at that location, and there was a reported home invasion at the address.

Rose added there have been allegations of drug dealing at the address, as well.

Bergeron said there have also been frequent bonfires on the property, with yelling and fighting. Bergeron added there were multiple building and health code violations, as well, including people living in trailers and raw sewage being dumped on the ground.

"Nothing is in compliance, the septic, the house itself," he said.

Taking the matter to Housing Court

The town has gone to Housing Court to enforce compliance to the building code. The town had also begun considering seeking the removal of current occupants in the wake of the murder due to health, building and fire code violations, said Freetown Building Commissioner Carl Bizarro.

He said, "We are committed to ensuring that the property is safe for anyone to occupy."

The court approved an order in August that all but two unregistered motor vehicles on the property must be removed, that all scrap metal and junk must be removed, that all occupied mobile homes must be removed, that all unpermitted structures constructed on the property must be removed or after-the-fact building permits must be applied for.

Bizarro said in a petition to the court that the complaints in the current court case stem from 2019. They were not being addressed despite repeated requests, he told the court.

A "special investigation" into the complaints was started in January, Bizarro stated, and has included inspections of the property, including this week.

Bizarro said the town had initially been trying to determine who the owner is.

The owner had been listed in assessor records as the estate of Harris Chace Sr., Heidi Chace's late father, but ownership may have been recently transferred to Heidi Chace.

Heidi Chace was named as the defendant in the town's complaint with the court. The case has now been dropped due to her death.

Bizarro said the result of this week's inspection suggested "that the best course of action would be to petition the court for an emergency condemnation of the building due to various building, health and fire violations."

There have been reports of people currently living on the property unrelated to Heidi Chace.

Chace's boyfriend, Matthew Lucas, 54, is being held without bail, charged with Chase's murder.

Lucas has a 24-page board of probation record, which includes violent felony charges, as well as convictions, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors say the murder occurred early last Wednesday morning. Chace's body was found with significant facial trauma in the home. A bloody hammer was also found at the scene.

Lucas was arrested later that morning, hiding in a shed behind a nearby home owned by his brother.

Prosecutors say Lucas and Chase, and another couple living at the home, as well as a fifth person who left during the night, had been smoking cocaine and drinking leading up to the murder.

The other couple called the police at about 4:25 a.m.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Freetown home where murder committed logged 205 police calls in decade