Crime & Safety

'There's a Body in the Boat': Interview with Boat Owner Who Found Marathon Bombing Suspect

Watertown homeowner tells the *real* story of how he found a body in his boat.

WATERTOWN, MA -- Dave Henneberry says he never saw Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's face.

Nor, at first, did he see any blood.

In an interview with WCVB-TV, the Watertown homeowner who stumbled on the Boston Marathon bombing suspect in the boat in the driveway says the sequence of events was not at all what we've been hearing since Friday night.

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Henneberry said it all started when he had noticed two of the boat's roller pads had fallen to the ground. So when the police gave the OK to go out again after being 'in lockdown' in Watertown all day Friday, Henneberry went out to check the pads.

So while everybody believes Henneberry went out to the boat because he saw blood, he says that is not true.

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"There was no indication of anything."

He says he went to garage to grab a stepladder to peer through the shrink-wrap over the boat.

Then he saw blood.

"A good amount of blood." He tried to remember if he'd cut himself last time he'd been around the boat.

Then he saw a body. He couldn't see the face. He didn't look at the face.

"I didn't waste any time. I didn't ask him if he wanted a cup of coffee; I was out of there," Henneberry said.

He called 911 and said there was a body in the boat. Then the Franklin Street homeowner went right back outside.

Police responded immediately; he and his wife were whisked away.

We all know about how Tsarnaev was taken into custody that night.

Henneberry figures Tsarnaev may have slept in the boat all night Thursday into Friday morning.

Henneberry waves off talk of him being a hero.

"I'm an incidental hero," Henneberry said. "I wasn't out on the prowl, I was out to see my boat and I stumbled across this thing."

How does he feel about the groundswell effort to buy him a new boat to replace the bullet-riddled one?

"It makes me feel wonderful ... but it's [only] a boat. There are people who have lost lives and limbs. I'd rather the money goes to the One Fund Boston."

After all, he said, "I've got a canoe in the garage."


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