I hope I am not repeating a post.
Eastie man held in wife's strangling
by Dave Wedge
Saturday, February 2, 2002
A nasty custody battle and divorce turned deadly in East Boston when a city tow truck driver strangled his wife with a necktie and then fled to a New Hampshire ski resort where the couple vacationed and tried to kill himself, officials and sources said.
``He just wanted to stay in the house with his kids,'' said a close friend of Kevin Hensley. ``I think it just got too overwhelming for him and he didn't know what to do and this is what happened.''
Hensley, a 55-year-old Boston Transportation Department employee, allegedly strangled his wife, Nancy, in the family's Byron Street home Thursday afternoon. The couple, who have four kids, were in the midst of a bitter divorce that began just three weeks ago when Nancy Hensley, 45, tossed her husband out of the house and got a restraining order against him.
According to police, the couple's oldest daughter made the grim discovery in the basement of the home around 2:15 p.m. and called 911, saying that her mother was unconscious and her head was covered. A source said Hensley was strangled with a necktie. Kevin Hensley, described by friends and neighbors as a hard-working father, was not at the home when police arrived. Thursday night, Waterville Valley police officers found Hensley unconscious in his wife's 2000 Buick LeSabre. A source said he attached a hose to the exhaust pipe and stuffed it in the window in an apparent suicide attempt.
He was taken to a local hospital where he recovered and was arrested by New Hampshire state police on a Bay State warrant charging him with his wife's slaying. He was ordered held without bail after a hearing yesterday in Plymouth (N.H.) District Court. He is due back in that court Feb. 28 but prosecutors hope to bring him back to Massachusetts sooner to face the murder charges, Suffolk County District Attorney's Office spokesman David Procopio said.
Kevin Hensley's friend, who didn't want his name used, said the couple used to vacation at the New Hampshire ski resort.
``Waterville Valley was a place where he and Nancy would go in happier times,'' the friend said. ``He just went there and was trying to remember the happy times.''
The friend said Hensley was ``embarrassed'' when he was served with a restraining order last month at work. He described the Hensleys as ``the perfect couple'' and said they ``fought no more than anyone else.''
In court papers, Nancy Hensley claimed her husband was ``violent,'' verbally abusive and once punched a hole in a wall. She also said he recently spied on her at a local gym, sporting a phony beard and sunglasses.
``I was at Bally's and he was there in disguise, with a fake beard and sunglasses, stalking me for 45 minutes,'' she wrote in a court affidavit obtained by the Herald. ``Then he seen (sic) me speaking with someone for 3 minutes and he came over and verbally abused me and left. I stayed out for a while going food shopping because I was afraid to go home.''
She also alleged that he violated the restraining order several times by going to the Byron Street home. The divorce and a motion to extend the restraining order were still pending but the case was moved out of Suffolk County to Middlesex County because Nancy Hensley's sister worked as a secretary for the Suffolk judge assigned to the case, court papers show.
Kevin Hensley's friend said Nancy Hensley was a recently converted Jehovah's Witness and claimed that ``someone was guiding her in this (divorce).''
Neighbors yesterday said the Hensleys appeared to be a happy family. Nancy Hensley often jogged and rode bicycles with their daughters, ages 20 and 10, while Kevin Hensley shot hoops and worked on the house with their sons, ages 17 and 6.
Nancy Hensley, who was unemployed, was recalled by one female relative yesterday as a ``good mother.'' Alice Norton, the Hensleys' 81-year-old wheelchair-bound neighbor, called Nancy Hensley a ``beautiful person'' who often stopped by to check on her. ``She was a lovely, lovely lady,'' Norton said. ``They're very nice people. I'm just shocked that this happened.''
David Weber contributed to this report.