6 Month Armed Assault Investigation Leads To Arrests: Update

MANCHESTER, NH — Police in Manchester have arrested two men after a multi-month investigation into an assault incident at a Queen City gas station.

In February, police were sent to the Mobil station on Elm Street for a report of a pedestrian struck by a vehicle. Police said one man picked up the victim in a car and a second man inside the car attacked him. After fleeing from the men, the driver of the car drove into the victim and left the scene, police said.

“Through the course of the investigation,” Heather Hamel, a public information officer for police, said, “it became apparent that all parties were known to each other.”

After about six months, two men were charged.

Elias Dawley, 28, of Colonial Drive in Greenfield was arrested on first- and second-degree assault charges as well as kidnapping. Police accused him of “wrapping a cord around the victim’s neck and hitting him with a gun,” Hamel said. A second man, Joshua Bowden, 26, of Manchester was also charged with first-degree assault and kidnapping.

Dawley, who is in the New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord, being held on other charges, was to be arraigned on Monday. Bowden was arraigned on Aug. 2, with $2,000 cash bail.

In July, Nashua detectives accused Dawley of presenting a threatening note to a front desk clerk at the Double Tree by Hilton and demanding money in mid-February. The robbery suspect then left the hotel with around $800.

Melody Haggerty, also of Greenfield, was arrested by Nashua police in early July. She was accused of being involved in the robbery.

Dawley, according to superior court records, is a felon due to a possession of controlled-narcotic drug conviction out of Manchester from May 2012.

In Chesterfield, in September 2013, he was accused of robbery. The charge was filed against him in November 2017. He pleaded guilty in May 2018 and was given a 12-month prison sentence. In June 2014, he was accused of multiple counts of felonious sexual assault and second-degree assault as well as an interference with custody charge in Greenfield. In December 2014, Dawley was accused of robbery, first-degree assault, criminal threatening, felon in possession, and breach of bail after an incident in Greenfield.

Dawley pleaded guilty in September 2015 to the assault and interference charges, while the sexual assault charges were dropped. He also pleaded guilty to the robbery, possession, and breach charges in the second case. Dawley received a 12-month prison sentence for all the charges.

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