MANCHESTER, NH – Stephanie Beard, charged with stabbing a 71-year-old man to death in his apartment at the Carpenter Center in 2022, was found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder and one charge of theft by unauthorized taking.
Beard, 39, formerly of Hillsboro, had pleaded not guilty and relied on an insanity defense, saying she was experiencing severe mental illness and psychosis at the time of the killing and believed she was the target of a deadly conspiracy.
John Glennon, 71, was found dead in the kitchen doorway of his fourth-floor apartment in the Carpenter Center on Franklin Street on the morning of May 13, 2022. He had been stabbed to death. The murder weapon, a large knife, was lodged in his face.
After the murder, Beard fled the scene in Glennon’s 2016 Subaru, She was arrested by Boston police on May 14, 2022.
Attorney General John M. Formella issued a statement following the guilty verdicts rendered by a Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District jury on the two murder charges, accusing of knowingly and recklessly causing Glennon’s death, and stealing his car after the killing.
“We are grateful for the jury’s careful consideration in this case and for the work of our trial team and law enforcement partners, including the Manchester Police Department, New Hampshire State Police Forensic Laboratory, and the Boston Police Department. “We hope this verdict provides some measure of closure to Mr. Glennon’s family, and we remain committed to pursuing accountability and protecting public safety.”
Manchester Police Chief Peter Marr said it was a “great verdict; this blatant act of violence has no place in our city. I am satisfied that Ms. Beard will be held fully accountable for her actions. I want to thank the officers and detectives whose hard work were instrumental in this investigation, as well as the partner law enforcement agencies that assisted us. I also appreciate the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office for their work in prosecuting this case and the jury’s quick decision.”
According to court documents, about 8:30 a.m. on May 13, 2022, Karen Brown of 323 Franklin St., Apt. 308, in the Carpenter Center called police to report she found her neighbor, Glennon, who lived in Apt. 407, in a pool of blood.
Arriving officers found Glennon dead in the kitchen doorway of his apartment. A long kitchen knife was “stuck in Glennon’s face, above the cheekbone and below his right eye. The officers also noticed his lip had been sliced through, and there appeared to be cuts on both is left and right forearms,” according to the sworn affidavit of Sgt. Candice Thomas on file in Superior Court.
A footprint was left in his blood.
Investigators found a pool of blood on the bedroom floor, blood on a desk in the bedroom and what looked like blood smears on the walls exiting the bedroom, down the hallway and into the kitchen. A trail of blood drops led from the bedroom to where Glennon was found in the doorway.
Someone had rummaged through the bedroom where drawers were open and ransacked. Detectives also found a yellow jacket with a large amount of blood on it on the kitchen floor.
Detectives later reviewed video footage from the night of May 12, 2022, which recorded Glennon accompanied by a woman, identified as Beard by police officers who had prior interactions with her.
According to Thomas’ affidavit, from December 2020 to May 2022, Beard had been arrested 11 times, with a history of prostitution, and had contact with officers 22 times.
Brown told police that Glennon had a daily routine that included going to the YMCA at 9 a.m. and then spending time with his girlfriend Jeannette Boisvert, who also resides at the Carpenter Center.
Investigators spoke to several Carpenter Center residents who reported seeing Glennon the night before with a young blond woman heading into the building and on the elevator. One resident told police that around 2 a.m. on May 13, 2022, he heard Glennon’s car make a beeping noise and saw a person get into it and drive off.
Video footage, recorded Beard at 2:14 a.m. entering the fourth-floor elevator. She had a blood stain on her face and was nervously pacing and continuously turning inside the elevator. She left the building and is recorded heading toward the Carpenter Center parking lot and Glennon’s car, a 2016 silver Subaru Impreza. Beard then drives off.
Boston police arrested her on May 14, 2022.
According to documents filed by defense attorneys, since her arrest Beard underwent four medical evaluations for civil commitment, competency, restorations of competency and insanity. Beard had been hospitalized many times prior to her arrest and has been hospitalized for 2 ½ years at the Secured Psychiatric Unit.
There is a voluminous amount of mental health documents related to her insanity dating back to 2010s, defense attorneys said in court filings. SPU records alone total more than 5,000 documents. Her statements, the attorneys say, show her suffering from psychosis.
The trial spanned five days over two weeks. Beard will be sentenced at a later date.