Crime & Safety

ICYMI: Police Chief Nix: 'My Most Memorable Case'

Sudbury Patch continues its series of questions with the chief. This week, he discusses the tragic case he'll never forget.

SUDBURY, MA — It's been more than nine years, but for Sudbury Chief Scott Nix, the incident is one of the most memorable, and upsetting, of his career.

Nix was a Sudbury lieutenant at the time, when on Jan. 19 of 2007, two students got into an altercation in a hallway at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. It resulted in the death of one of those students.

A 15-year-old ninth grader was stabbed after the fight in the bathroom moved into the bathroom, the ninth grader stabbed by a 16-year-old at the school, reported the Boston Globe.

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James Alenson was rushed to Emerson Hospital where he was pronounced dead by 8:12 a.m. School officials notified the school community with an email.

John Odgren, who was not identified initially because of his age, was sentenced to a mandatory life sentence, found guilty of murder in April of 2010, reported the Associated Press.

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"I’ve had a number of memorable cases," said Chief Nix, "but the homicide at at Lincoln-Sudbury in January of 2007 where a 16-year-old killed a 15-year-old - that’s a tragic event that affected two families and a community. We brought it to a successful prosecution; nonetheless, the two families were affected by this."

Nix said Odgren did not know Alenson, and the stabbing was called an "ambush."

"It really demonstrated and taught a lot of us the real importance of speaking for those who don’t have a voice anymore," said Chief Nix. "I’m proud of how our department performed along with others, but it’s a tragic event that we wish we didn’t have to perform. It was a pretty big investigation."

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