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• Night of horror recounted

August 08, 2007 (Lowell, MA) – As a man pounded on the front door of their mobile home, trying to break in, Kathy Crowley retreated to her mother's bedroom with her 14-year-old daughter.

The three women feared the man was already inside when they called police at about 2:15 a.m. on July 30.

By the time Chelmsford Police Officer Robert Murphy reached their home at the Chelmsford Mobile Home Park on Littleton Road, the would-be intruder had disappeared.

Less than two hours later, that man, Adam Leroy Lane, got inside the McDonough family's house on nearby Pine Hill Road, where he used a knife to assault 15-year-old Shea McDonough in a bedroom, police testified yesterday.

Lane, a 42-year-old truck driver from North Carolina, was ordered held without bail after yesterday's dangerousness hearing in Lowell District Court.

Assistant District Attorney Kerry Ahern portrayed Lane, of Jonesville, N.C., as a hunter, blazing a trail to three homes near the rest area on the northbound side of Interstate 495 in Chelmsford, where he parked his truck before looking for a teenage victim to assault.

A man matching Lane's description was reported prowling in the Woodcrest Condominium complex on Littleton Road, abutting I-495, at about 11 p.m. on July 29, who later tried to break into Crowley's mother's home in the Chelmsford Mobile Home Park, also on Littleton Road, at about 2:15 a.m. Lane was arrested inside the McDonough family's Pine Hill Road home at about 3:55 a.m.

Lane found the two girls separately and, even though he had opportunities to leave them alone each time, he instead attacked, Ahern said.

"He was, I would suggest, after 14-year-old girls that evening," Ahern said in arguing for no bail.

A man believed to be Lane turned away from the Woodcrest home after a resident standing on her deck spotted him, said police Officer George Tyros.

A man matching Lane's description then showed up at Gladys Shea's mobile home on Littleton Road a few hours later, early on the morning of July 30.

When reached at home yesterday, Shea said her 14-year-old granddaughter, Michelle Crowley, was in the living room of her mobile home when she twice spotted a man with what appeared to be a bag over his head just outside the window.

"My granddaughter loves playing on the computer," Shea said. "There's a window right next to the computer and the window is open and he's standing right next to the window."

The girl's mother, Kathy Crowley, found the peeping Tom during a second search outside the home, Ahern said.

"Upon seeing him, she became extremely afraid," Tyros testified.

The man believed to be Lane was wearing black clothes and a utility belt similar to a police officer's, he said. Police later said the belt held knives and a wire cord looped on each end that could be used for strangulation.

Crowley ran back into the mobile home, ordering her daughter to lock the windows, and the man believed to be Lane followed, pounding on the door and apparently smashing the porch light, Tyros testified.

After he left, the women were still so scared that Murphy stayed for about an hour to guard the home before resuming his patrols.

A short while later, police got a call of a break-in at 126 Pine Hill Road.

"I drew my service revolver and entered the home," Murphy testified.

As he walked down the hallway, he met Jean McDonough whose hands were covered in blood after helping to fight Lane, Murphy said.

Inside a small bedroom at the end of the hall, Murphy found Kevin McDonough on his back with his arms wrapped around the neck of Lane, a much larger man, to keep him from escaping.

Murphy saw a survival knife on the floor and threw it across the room to keep Lane from getting it, then waited for help to arrive before picking up and handcuffing Lane.

Shea McDonough had gotten home about 11:45 p.m. before her midnight curfew, and said goodnight to her parents before going to sleep in an adjacent spare bedroom because it was a hot night and the room had an air conditioner, Tyros said. Before falling asleep, she pulled the blanket up to her chin to protect against the chilly air.

Lane broke into the house shortly before 4 a.m. and stole purses on kitchen and living-room counters before retreating to an outside deck where he rifled through them, Tyros testified. The girl later reported she found her high-school identification card pulled out of her wallet far enough to show her picture.

Apparently, Lane returned to the house and crept past the master bedroom's open door to reach the spare bedroom, he said.

"Her first memory, she stated, was a cloth hand covering her mouth and nose," Tyros said. "She thought she was suffocating, and a knife to her throat."

Lane ordered the girl to stay quiet or he'd kill her, but she whimpered and tried to move her legs, which were uncovered because the blanket had been removed from the bed, Tyros said. The teenager was not touched otherwise, he said.

Kevin McDonough woke up when he heard his daughter, and opened the door to the bedroom.

He's about 80 pounds lighter than Lane, who weighs about 240 pounds, but launched himself at the alleged intruder when he saw a knife pressed against his daughter's throat, Tyros said.

Lane cut Shea McDonough on the shoulder as he turned to face her father, Tyros said. She grabbed a cell phone off a nightstand, then ran outside to telephone police.

As McDonough and Lane battled, Jean McDonough grabbed, with both hands, the blade of the knife in Lane's hand, Tyros said.

"She was afraid he was going to stab everyone in the room so she grabbed the blade so he couldn't," Tyros said.

Defense attorney Daniel Callahan tried to find flaws in the accounts, noting that Shea McDonough reported Lane put a gun in her mouth even though police didn't find a gun.

"That call that you got at 3:55 or 3:58, that call you got indicated a man had placed a gun in the caller's mouth," Callahan said. "As far as you know there was no gun, right? ... So as far as you know that report was incorrect."

The McDonoughs sat quietly through much of the more than hourlong hearing yesterday. Jean McDonough wrapped her left arm around her daughter and Kevin McDonough draped his arm across both their shoulders.

As District Court Judge Neil Walker announced Lane would continue to be held without bail, Jean McDonough pumped one of her bandaged hands, while Kevin nodded his approval.

Through Tyros, they declined comment after the hearing.

-By Jack Minch, Lowell Sun