Boat Owner Describes His Discovery Of Boston Bombing Suspect

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The Watertown, Mass. man who found the alleged Boston Marathon bomber hiding in his boat last week said it was his obsession with the upkeep of the water vessel that led him to the astonishing discovery.

Resigned to his suburban Boston home after a “shelter-in-place” order had been established for the area, David Henneberry said he noticed that the pads he kept between shrink wrap and the Slip Away II — the boat he refers to affectionately as his “baby” — had fallen to the ground. He said that he keeps the pads between the shrink wrap to prevent chaffing. Henneberry’s account contradicts previous reports that suggested it was the sight of blood that lured him out to the boat when the “shelter-in-place” order was lifted shortly after 6 p.m. ET on Friday evening.

“No indication of anything. I know people say there was blood on the boat, that he saw blood and went in. Not true,” Henneberry told WCVB in Boston.  

Henneberry didn’t see blood until after he fetched a ladder from his garage and climbed up the steps to inspect the boat.

“I got, I think, three steps up the ladder and I rolled it up and I can see through now the shrink wrap,” Henneberry said. “I didn’t expect to see anything. And I look in the boat over here on the floor, and I see blood.”

He described it as a “good amount of blood” and initially wondered if he had cut himself before examining it further.

“Then I just looked over there and there’s more blood on the forward part on the floor,” Henneberry continued. “And I look back and forth to those two things a couple times. Then my eyes went to the other side of the engine box, the engine box is in the middle, there was a body.”

He couldn’t see the face of the suspect, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was captured by authorities after Henneberry called the police. Henneberry grew emotional toward the end of WCVB’s interview, saying he hopes Tsarnaev’s capture helps bring closure to families of the victims. 

Watch the entire interview here.

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