‘Trying to silence us’: Canton residents fear for safety after speaking out about Karen Read case

CANTON, Mass. — The Karen Read murder case has a lot of people on edge.

Just last week the judge said the jury list will never be released after some jurors said they fear for their safety, and now a few residents in Canton are also worried after they say someone threw bleach on their yards for speaking out about the case.

Brenda Sweeney and her husband had to pull out a big portion of their vegetable and flower garden after the plants started to die all of a sudden.

“So the leaves would get spots on them and then they would shrivel up,” said Sweeney. “And as he was pulling out the plants, he noticed the smell of bleach.”

The Sweeneys and a couple other Canton residents believe they’ve been targeted for supporting Karen Read.

Rita Lombardi believes someone threw bleach on her front yard too.

“You could see the trajectory of the splatter, so they threw the balloons and you could see the splatter of the liquid and that’s where it burned,” said Lombardi.

Lombardi found broken balloons in her yard, and then a neighbor found a bag of balloons down the street.

They believe someone filled balloons with bleach and threw them at these yards.

“In Canton you’re not supposed to talk about these things, so they’re trying to silence us,” said Lombardi.

Lombardi says she and Sweeney have been vocal at town meetings, questioning how the Karen Read murder case was handled, and now they’re starting to fear for their safety.

“You have to worry about these things, where I never ever would have thought about them before,” said Sweeney.

Sweeney says it’s a shame since she usually shares a lot of her vegetables with her neighbors.

But her biggest concern is for all the young children who come visit her garden.

“And they love all these figurines, they touch them, they talk to them, they pat them and these people are throwing bleach on them,” said Sweeney.

Both Lombardi and Sweeney say they filed police reports about the damage to their properties.

In a statement, Canton Police Chief Helena Rafferty said:

“I am aware of the allegations and have corresponded with the residents personally. Any type of act in this community, or any community for that matter, that places another in fear for their safety and/or diminishes their quality of life is unacceptable. All evidentiary items recovered, that can be processed, were transported to Plymouth County BCI yesterday. We are hopeful that we will be able to identify exactly what type of liquid was in the balloons etc.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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