CHESTER, NH – On a Saturday afternoon in late August, Chris Sheehan and his father were working in his lower-level garage when a man approached him and said, “You should call 9-1-1. My client has wandered into your property.”
Sheehan assumed the man had taken care of the situation.
“Oh, no I think he’s in your house,” Sheehan said the man told him.
Sheehan turned around to see the front door closing on his 56 Smith Road home. Immediately, he ran inside to find a 6-foot-tall, 300-pound man standing two feet away from his 5-year-old who was stretched out on the living room couch. His 9-year-old was close by as well.
Sheehan ran to his son as the man took a swing at another caretaker who had followed his client into Sheehan’s home. The caretaker ducked, avoiding being hit.
Simultaneously, Sheehan’s wife Julie Smith, hearing the doorbell ring and the door open, had gone to the living room to see what was happening. Sheehan picked up his 5-year-old, handed him to Smith and told her to take him to his bedroom.
When she returned, a caregiver handed her his cell phone and told her to call 9-1-1. She did. By then, the intruder was in her kitchen and turning towards the hallway. Sheehan stopped him, while his wife told the man, who is childlike, “I have a garden. Would you like to see it?”
Smith said it was clear to her, that the caregivers were not allowed to touch the man. She said they kept saying, “Come on, Corey. We have to go.”
Smith said when she mentioned the garden, the man stopped and her husband managed to push him out the door. The caregivers followed him.
“It was horrifying,” Sheehan said. “Nobody knew what was going on.”
Sheehan trailed after the trio because he feared the man would try to go into the nearby home of his elderly neighbors. He was right as Corey tried to go up their driveway but Sheehan coaxed him away.
As they walked down the hill, Sheehan said Corey put one of the caretakers on the ground and, at one point, was pulling his hair .
“Corey got mad again and grabbed a caregiver by the hair. He had his face just about down on the ground and was kind of whipping him around pretty much,” Sheehan said. “He was pretty violent. There was nothing they could do. They weren’t defending themselves at all or the neighborhood.”
Eventually, the three men made it back to 21 Smith Road where three Chester police officers were waiting.
The incident happened on Aug. 23, 2025, around noon. Two weeks later, the couple still are upset.
The man, who caretakers referred to as “Corey,” walked a quarter of a mile up a hill that Saturday to reach the couple’s home, Smith said. He is the sole occupant of 21 Smith Road, a three-bedroom home owned by Community Options, a Princeton, N.J. -based non-profit company that contracted with New Hampshire to provide services to the mentally disabled.
This is not the first time that a Community Options client named “Corey,” described as over 6-feet-tall and 300 pounds, has disrupted a neighborhood and entered a home uninvited.
Manchester Ink Link could not verify that “Corey” is the same man who disrupted a Manchester neighborhood last summer. State officials say they cannot disclose that information because it is confidential.
“State and federal statutes require us to protect the privacy and confidentiality of those we serve,” Jake Leon, spokesman for the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, said in an email about the incident in Chester. “The Department works closely with community residential providers such as Community Options to address any issues that arise and ensure that trained staff deliver the services their clients need to be successful in the community and live healthy, independent lives.”
Ink Link also reached out to Community Options. The following statement was issued by Kathryn Giron, State Director for Community Options:
“We are aware of the concerns raised by neighbors regarding the recent incident. The safety and well-being of the individuals we support, as well as the surrounding community, remain our top priorities. Community Options has addressed this matter directly with the residents and caregivers involved and will continue to ensure appropriate supports are in place.”
Manchester, Nashua Incidents
On March 12, 2024, Community Options purchased a four-bedroom 1 ½ bath home at 54 Vandora Drive in Manchester for $468,800, according to the city’s assessors’ database.
Three months later, in June of 2024, residents of the Vandora Drive/Robert Hall Road neighborhood reported several incidents involving “Corey,” who they described as over 6-feet tall and weighing more than 300 pounds. Corey, they said, entered homes uninvited, assaulted his caregivers and once stripped naked on a police officer’s front lawn.
One resident told Manchester Ink Link that on a Saturday night in June 2024, Corey opened a patio door to gain entrance to his Robert Hall Road home. Someone was trying to get him under control and told the resident to call police. As the owner was making the 9-1-1 call, two caregivers wrangled the man out of his home.
By the time the resident reached 9-1-1, the caregivers had managed to remove the man from his home and walk him back to the single-family home owned by Community Options.
Residents were told they were trying to relocate Corey but that it could take six months to a year to accomplish it.
A year later, a man named Corey– and fitting the description of the one in the Manchester incidents, moved into 21 Smith Road.
“I think they thought they could put him in the woods and sweep it under the rug,” said Smith. The couple’s home is located on a dirt road in rural Chester.
Sheehan said he believes “they’re just moving him around and out of sight of neighbors but that doesn’t make it right. They have one person in a $600,000 house with kids around. He’s a threat. He was in our house, threatening our family.”
Smith said, “There is nowhere else for him to go. This is how the state has navigated the issue.”
In July 2024 in Nashua, neighbors of a Tolles Road neighborhood reported a woman broke a window to get out of a home owned by Community Options.
She was armed with a knife and screaming outside, resulting in a call to police and her being handcuffed and taken away in a cruiser. She returned the following day.
The residents in Nashua and Manchester, as well as Smith and Sheehan, all complained they were never notified that houses in their neighborhoods were going to be a group home for severely mentally disabled people.
Zoning laws don’t apply
Under state law, zoning laws do not apply to state-contracted providers, according to Leon.
DHHS and the Bureau of Developmental Services budgeted $12,460,000 for services for individuals who have intellectual and/or developmental disabilities and who require a higher level of care due to behavioral support needs. The funds are to be used to create 114 beds in 33 homes statewide through 9 contracts.
DHHS awarded Community Options $3.2 million for 2024 and 2025 to do that.
With those funds, Community Options is to purchase 12 existing homes in New Hampshire, as approved by DHHS to house a minimum of 32 individuals. Community Options is reimbursed a portion of the housing acquisition costs, as well as personnel, supplies, training, and other costs necessary to place the housing units in service.
Community Options purchased the 21 Smith Road residence in April 2024 for $504,100, according to Chester’s online assessors’ database.
Smith said Corey did not move in immediately because some work was done to the property including erecting a chain-link fence. She said she would not have known about other incidents concerning clients of Community Options if Manchester and Nashua Ink Link had not written about them last year.
Police report of Chester Incident
According to the Aug. 23, 2025 incident report of Patrol Officer Ryan Ventullo, when officers arrived that afternoon at 21 Smith Road, Ventullo approached the man, who is only identified in the report by the initial “C,” who he said appeared pleased to see him. Ventullo asked him to “give me some knuckles.”
However, the two caretakers, who are identified only by the initial “K” and “N,” seemed to be having issues controlling their client.
“C was seen attempting to make contact with N’s head multiple times with an open hand slap prior to walking back to C’s home,” Ventullo wrote.
That day, the caretakers had taken Corey out to the front yard to play on the trampoline. Corey ran off through the unlocked front gate and ended up walking up the hill to Smith’s home.
To keep Corey calm while inside the house, he plays with Play-Doh or Barbie dolls and colors, the caregivers told police.
They explained Corey had missed his medications on Friday because there was no one available that day who was certified to give them to him. They say that could be why he was acting out.
K told the officers the entryway on the fence furthest from the driveway is normally secured with a bicycle pad lock and is used for the landscaper to come in and mow the lawn. However, on that Saturday, the gate was left unlocked, allowing Corey to walk out, according to the police report.
There are a total of three entry gates surrounding the area, with the one in the middle needing a key to unlock. C, the caregivers told police, tends to play with the locks. That Saturday, one gate was unlocked and another was broken off its hinges.
Police gave the caregivers some advice as to how to keep their client safe and on their property. It included checking the gates to ensure they are locked making sure workers on other shifts are aware of what is happening, among other tips.
The three officers then left to go speak to Smith and Sheehan. As they were leaving, however, Ventullo noticed the gate closest to the driveway was unlocked. He went back to speak with the caregivers and met another Community Options employee who had arrived to give Corey his medication. That person had not locked the gate and had not been told of what had happened 15 minutes earlier, according to the police report.
Ventullo again spoke to K (earlier the officers had given them advice on how to prevent a recurring incident) explaining that keeping the gate unlocked and not relaying information to anyone helping C was unacceptable and could lead to their client getting out again.
Since the incident, police were called to the house three more times. Between May 5 and Sept. 3, 2025, police were sent to 21 Smith Road six times.
Smith said officers from Derry, Auburn and Chester responded to at least one of those incidents over the long Labor Day weekend.
Neighbors told her a window was broken from the inside on one occasion.
Police explained to Smith and Sheehan that they cannot arrest Corey because he is incompetent to stand trial.
Sheehan believes that Corey is not getting the care he needs.
Like residents in Manchester, Sheehan fears things will end badly if Corey enters the wrong residence and the homeowner shoots him or inadvertently shoots one of his caregivers.
He said he normally would not wish this on anyone, but he believes Corey needs to be placed in an institution.
Smith and Sheehan said the only option they have is to obtain a civil restraining order against the man and Community Options. They also plan to meet with their selectmen.