12-17-2011 Massachusetts:The former Annisquam man and Big Brother volunteer charged with molesting a 13-year-old boy is dead — having committed suicide Thursday at his Central Masachusetts home.
Lt. Kathy Auld, Gloucester's chief of detectives, confirmed Friday that Frederick Lyman, 64, had taken his own life.
Lyman, who once served on Gloucester's Historic Commission but had since moved to New Salem, faced charges of five counts of forcible child rape involving incidents both in Gloucester and elsewhere with a boy he was mentoring through the Big Brother program.
If convicted on a forcible rape charge, Lyman would have faced life in prison.
Sources close to the case said Friday that Lyman — who was facing a new court hearing on Monday — committed suicide in his house, though neither Auld nor Gloucester Detective Jeremiah Nicastro, who handled the Lyman case, would confirm that for the record.
The Northwestern Massachusetts District Attorney's office, which is based in Northampton and covers the New Salem area, declined to comment on this story
Lyman, initially charged in Gloucester District Court, was indicted on the rape charges in October and arraigned in Salem Superior Court on Nov. 15. He had been out on $100,000 cash bail awaiting a pretrial hearing on Jan. 23.
But his bail agreement, Nicastro said Friday, required him not to leave the state. And detectives had evidence that Lyman violated that at least twice, he said.
Nicastro said Lyman was up for a hearing on potential bail revocation, through Salem Superior Court had not yet scheduled one.
Massachusetts State Police arrested Lyman at his home in New Salem in September following Nicastro's two-month investigation into the child rape allegations. The charges stemmed from five separate alleged sexual offenses involving the same boy between 2005 and 2007, and beginning when the boy was 13.
At least some of the incidents occurred in Gloucester, and one on trip to Chicago, according to police.
"I feel sad for (Lyman's) two children," Nicastro said Friday. "But I'm glad the victim doesn't have to go through the stress of a trial." ..Source.. by Steven Fletcher Staff Writer
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