More on Woman Killed By Bomb in MA
Maggie
Package bomb kills Everett woman
Friends say victim had described harassment by stalker
By John Ellement and Mac Daniel, Globe Staff, 1/21/1999
VERETT - An Everett woman who reportedly had been stalked by a man for two
years and had installed a surveillance camera to protect herself was killed
yesterday by a package bomb that exploded in her apartment.
Sandy Berfield, 34, who slept with a knife for several years, had just picked
up the package from the front steps of her 30 Glendale St. apartment house and
had carried it into her second-floor apartment when it blew up around noon.
Authorities at first believed the package had been delivered by a postal
worker, but Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley said later it was
already at the woman's house when her mail was delivered for the day.
''We are pursuing leads in the case,'' said Coakley. ''We have no reason to
believe it is a random event.''
Police would say little about the killing, declining to identify the victim or
the accused stalker.
But friends said that it was Berfield and that she often talked about the man
whose harassment she fought in an effort to live a normal life.
''We've always warned her,'' said Bruce Showstead, who works at Josie's Place,
an Everett bar where Berfield was employed until October. ''But she always
refused help. She said she can't shut her life down because some guy stalks
her.''
A friend who requested anonymity said the stalker ''went into the [Bickford's]
restaurant where she worked, and since then he didn't let her out of his sight.
''He called her Tuesday and she told me, `Just wait. S omething bad is going to
happen'. ''
The friend, who is also a neighbor, went on to say that she heard the
explosion, and ''when I saw the crime tape go up, I knew it was Sandy.''
Neighbors and friends said that the unidentified man who had become enamored
with Berfield had been harassing her for years.
They said Berfield had obtained at least two restraining orders against the
man, who was described as a handyman who did odd jobs at the Bickford's in
Wellington Circle in Medford, where Berfield worked as a waitress. The man had
spent several months in jail for violating the orders.
Friends said Berfield had used a video camera she had installed in her
apartment to tape him standing in front of her building after her car had been
vandalized numerous times.
The friends said that the stalker slashed the car tires, poured acid into the
gas tank, and poured gasoline over the finish.
People who knew Berfield said she brought enough evidence of harassment to
Everett police that they arrested the man and he went to jail. He was released
in June but he continued to telephone Berfield from various shopping malls,
they said.
The explosion brought local and State Police, bomb experts and federal agents
to the building. They evacuated 20 houses in the area and directed students in
a nearby school away from the neighborhood.
The investigators went over the property with bomb-sniffing dogs. Officers
suited up in protective body armor, crawled on the ground to carefully search
Berfield's car, and went into her apartment, making sure there were no other
explosives.
Yesterday's violence sent ripples of fear throughout the area.
''This is a blue-collar neighborhood,'' said Trudy Tuttle, who lives down the
street from Berfield's home. ''We don't have terrorists or whatever. It's just
unbelievable.''
Neighbor Pam Osborne said the package was left on the front steps of the home,
but the wife of the landlord who lives on the first floor said it was too heavy
for her to carry upstairs. Berfield saw that it was addressed to her and
brought it inside minutes before the explsion.
''It's scary,'' Osborne said.
A neighbor said Berfield had also just started working last month at a
mail-handling facility in W altham.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 1/21/1999.
Maggie
"Caution: Cape does not enable user to fly."
-Batman Costume warning label