(CNN) -- Cooped up all day with nothing to do but stay glued to the TV while his city was on lock down, David Henneberry was eager for a breath of fresh air.
So when authorities in
Massachusetts lifted the order for residents to stay shut inside their
homes Friday, the Watertown resident stepped out to stretch his legs and
enjoy the beautiful spring day.
While in his back yard, Henneberry's gaze fell across something that just wasn't right.
What he saw brought an end to an intense manhunt that had the Boston community on edge for five restless days.
A trace on the tarp
"The tarp on his winterized boat had sort of been flapping in the wind," his stepson Robert Duffy told CNN's Piers Morgan.
Henneberry had tied down
the covering on the parked vessel so firmly that it had not budged all
winter long, not even through the blizzards that gusted into town this
year.
"He got closer and
realized that one of the retention straps had literally been cut -- not
chafed, not broken or unhooked," Duffy said.
Henneberry spied something else -- a trace of something on the tarp that looked like blood.
He thought some animal had forced its way into the boat. Maybe it was a squirrel, he told his stepson.
Henneberry climbed up on a stepladder to wage a gander inside.
"He basically stuck his head under the tarp (and) noticed a pool of blood," Duffy said.
'Crumpled up in a ball'
It was dark under the
tarpaulin, so the boat owner could only make out vague contours, "but he
definitely noticed there was something crumpled up in a ball," the
stepson said.
A pool of blood; a manhunt in Watertown; time to call 911.
Squad cars with lights flashing raced in and lined the streets. Officers fanned out around the house.
Police whisked the
Henneberrys so hastily from harm's way and into a neighbor's house that
the couple left their cell phones behind at home.
Frantic phone calls
Duffy said he tried
frantically to call his mother and stepfather as he watched on TV while
law officers unleashed a hail storm of gunfire into the back yard.
"We only saw the bullets; we only heard that there was a man covered in blood in the boat."
His stepfather, Duffy thought.
He kept dialing.
The couple's landline gave him a constant busy signal.
"It was absolutely horrifying for approximately 40 minutes," Duffy said.
He drove over to a
relative's house to see if the phone lines worked better from there. As
soon as he arrived, his sister called him.
"Mom's called, they're safe," she comforted him.
"At that point, my tears of horror went to tears of joy," Duffy said.
An end to the hunt
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