When the police arrived, Jeannie and her family saw that the man had been carrying three knives that night—a buck knife and two military-style knives. One of the knives, 15-inches in length, had been strapped to his leg in a sheath. He also had in his possession what was described as a “choke wire,” as well as a Chinese throwing star. After identifying the intruder/assailant as Adam Leroy Lane, they learned that Lane was a truck driver. Police found his truck parked at a truck stop about a mile from town, and figured that he must have walked around that evening looking for someone to victimize. Inside the cab of his truck was a videotape of a gruesome movie about a serial killer called, Hunting Humans.
“I don’t know how long he was standing there,” Shea recalled to a reporter with the Lowell Sun. “I just woke up and he was there. I didn’t know if it was someone I knew. Then I heard the southern accent, and he said, ‘Make a noise and I’m gonna kill you.’ I kinda went against what he said. I started pushing against the bed.”
Fortunately, the air conditioner in Jeannie’s and Kevin’s bedroom was not working that evening, allowing for them to hear Shea’s muffled cry for help and a slight bump on the wall. Shea had been sleeping in the guest room that night, as it was the only bedroom with an air conditioning unit that worked on that particular hot and muggy evening. Had she been in her own room that night, which is farther away from her parents’ room, her cry for help might have gone unheard and resulted in a much more tragic end to their story.
“My husband was incredible,” Jeannie said. “My daughter kept her head about her. I’m just very grateful.”
“I pretty much couldn’t believe it,” Kevin said. “We saw how close we were to a real tragedy.”
Lane, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to the attack at the McDonough home and was sentenced to 25 to 30 years in prison on a number of charges that included armed home invasion, armed assault, and assault with intent to murder. According to People magazine, Lane has also confessed to the slaying of 38-year-old Monica Massaro in her Bloomsbury, New Jersey home the day before the McDonough home invasion and attack. Also according to People, Lane is being investigated in the fatal stabbing of 42-year-old Darlene Ewalt in her home in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and authorities in North Carolina are also investigating Lane’s alleged involvement in the 1996 shooting death of Sergeant Gregory Keith Martin, from Jonesville, who was killed after pulling over a stolen truck driven by a burly, bearded man who fit Lane’s general description. Martin had been shot seven times. Lane is also being investigated for the slashing of yet another woman who, fortunately, survived the attack.
According to the police, Lane’s modus operandi seemed to fit a pattern in which he would typically drive into a truck stop and park, and then drift into nearby towns—often on foot—searching for victims. Police believe that Lane had attempted to break into a woman’s trailer at a trailer park in Chelmsford only a few hours before he settled on the McDonough home. It was believed that a teenage girl residing in the trailer had been the intended victim in that case as well.
“What they (the McDonoughs) did that night is unbelievable,” said Chelmsford Police Department Chief James Murphy. “Sometimes people freeze, but they reacted. With any hesitation, things would have turned out differently.”
