Man Kills Self On Dick Swan's Property
http://www.boston.com/news/local/art...move_memorial/
Family obeys order to remove memorial
By Christine Legere
Globe Correspondent / October 23, 2008
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A family grieving over the recent suicide of a father of three was dealt another blow last week, when the owner of the property in East Bridgewater where the man took his life ordered the relatives to take down a small memorial they had set up.
The family remains bitter, while the owner says they unfairly criticized police for the man's death and doesn't want his property used for a memorial.
On Sept. 23, 35-year-old Chad Hirtle Jr. shot himself deep in 80 acres of woods owned by Richard Swan, a local businessman who runs a weapons-manufacturing company.
East Bridgewater Police Chief John Cowan had closed schools on the morning of Hirtle's suicide as a safety measure, and sent a public warning via an automated phone program, reporting an armed man loose in the woods off Spring Street. As a result of the warnings, Hirtle's suicide drew quite a bit of media attention, both in newspapers and on television.
Hirtle's wife, Barbara, said she and her husband had a late-evening argument on Sept. 22, and he had stormed outside. She was awakened hours later by a phone call from her husband, asking her to come get him because he was lost. He had ridden his daughter's bicycle to a wooded area off Spring Street and had a gun.
Barbara drove to the edge of the woods and shined her car lights to guide her husband out. She also continued talking to her husband on the phone. A passing police officer called in help.
Police from several towns searched the woods and tried to persuade Hirtle to surrender his gun and come with them. Police tried to knock him down by shooting bean bags at him, but were unsuccessful, and Hirtle eventually shot himself.
The Hirtles have three children: a teenage daughter, an 11-year-old son, and an 8-year-old son with Down syndrome.
After the funeral, the family went into the woods to the spot where Hirtle shot himself and set up a memorial with a wooden cross, flowers, and a picture of him. Barbara Hirtle also brought pictures of the children.
"We asked permission to set up the memorial, but the problem was we asked the wrong place," Hirtle said. "We thought a different company owned the land."
Last week, Swan knocked on Hirtle's door, angry about comments she made in a Brockton Enterprise story, raising the question of whether her husband could have been saved.
Barbara Hirtle's father, Ray Edwards, answered the door and took the letter from Swan, assuming it was a letter of condolence. The family was shocked by its contents.
In his letter, Swan criticized Hirtle for her quotes in the newspaper. Swan has donated large sums of money to the police and fire departments for equipment.
"After reading your comments, I find not one word of Thank You for those police officers . . .," Swan wrote. "For you to attack the heroic efforts of those officers only trying to save your husband's life is disgusting."
The letter demanded the memorial be removed by 5 p.m. that day. The family complied.
"It's his land, so he has the right to order it, but it was the wording he used in the letter," Edwards said. "Barbara was in tears."
In a phone call, Swan told the Globe he blames Hirtle for her husband's death. "He was out there with a gun, and she didn't call the police," he said. "And now she's maligning their efforts. I wasn't going to have my property become part of the show."
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