Unsealed affidavit reveals new details in Winchester murder case

Sep. 1—WINCHESTER — Police say the man accused of killing a family member at a Scofield Mountain Road residence in July admitted to shooting the 72-year-old man in his sleep, according to an affidavit filed in the murder case.

Police arrested Keegan Duhaime, 26, of Winchester, on July 13 on two counts of second-degree murder alleging he killed Timothy Hill the previous Saturday, according to the N.H. Attorney General's Office.

At the time prosecutors filed murder charges in Cheshire County Superior Court, Judge Jacki Smith, at the state's request, sealed the affidavit — a court document outlining the evidence investigators have gathered in the case — related to Duhaime's arrest.

New details in the case became public with the release of that affidavit Wednesday, after Smith ruled on a motion to unseal the document, filed by The Sentinel in July. The state did not object to the motion, according to the court order, but sought to redact certain personal information, which the court gave prosecutors 24 hours to do.

According to the affidavit written by N.H. State Police Sgt. Justin Rowe, police on July 13 conducted a welfare check at the 484 Scofield Mountain Road home where Duhaime lived with his grandmother and Hill, her husband.

Hill's wife — who runs a summertime business in Maine and was not home for several weeks — requested the welfare check after she received notification that Hill had missed all of his regularly scheduled chemotherapy appointments for the week, the affidavit states. She told police that notification conflicted with text messages she had received from Hill's cellphone saying he had been attending the appointments, Rowe wrote.

When police arrived at the home around 11:40 a.m., they found Hill's truck in the driveway with the window smashed, according to the affidavit, which states the door to the house was locked and nobody answered at the door.

About an hour later, police received verbal consent from Hill's wife to force entry into the house but before they could do so, Duhaime emerged from the residence, Rowe wrote. Duhaime then told police that he had shot Hill in the head with a .38 caliber revolver, according to the affidavit.

After receiving consent from Duhaime's grandmother, police searched the home, finding Hill deceased in his bed with an apparent gunshot wound on the right side of his head and a revolver on a table in his room, according to the affidavit.

At the Winchester Police Department, State Police interviewed Duhaime later that day. He described himself as an alcoholic and said he and Hill had been drinking beer July 9 to the point where they were both "buzzed," the affidavit states.

Duhaime said the two had a great day together and he tried to apologize to Hill for "everything he has put [Hill] through," Rowe wrote in the affidavit. Telling police he had previously been unable to work up the courage to make such an apology, Duhaime said he became angry when Hill did not want to talk about the apology, the affidavit states. Duhaime rated his anger as a "10-plus," Rowe wrote, adding that he said he then left the room and continued to drink beer.

After Hill went to bed around 9:30 p.m. that night, Duhaime said he went into the "map room" above the garage to retrieve Hill's revolver from the gun safe there, according to the affidavit.

Duhaime said he loaded one .38 caliber round into the firearm and returned to his bedroom, where he continued to drink several more beers, Rowe wrote. A little after 10:30 p.m., according to the affidavit, he walked across the hall to Hill's bedroom and shot him has he slept.

Rowe wrote in the affidavit that Duhaime told police he did not hesitate to shoot Hill, and thought "nothing was going to stop him," just prior to pulling the trigger. One of the main reasons he shot and killed Hill, he told police, was because Hill did not want to hear his apology.

After shooting Hill, Duhaime said he returned to his bedroom and drank more beer before falling asleep and then spent the next couple days continuing to drink beer and smoke marijuana around the house, while doing nothing with the body, until police arrived, Rowe wrote.

Duhaime told police that he had used a hammer to break the window of Hill's truck so he could go to a nearby store to buy more beer when he ran out, the affidavit states. He also said he used Hill's cellphone in an effort to hide the murder, impersonating him in texts to his grandmother that said Hill was attending his appointments, Rowe wrote.

A dispositional conference in the case is scheduled for Sept. 28. Duhaime has been ordered held without bail, according to court documents. His lawyer did not return a request for comment Thursday.

Ryan Spencer can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1412, or rspencer@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at

@rspencerKS