Seaside Heights Man Strangled In NH Hotel; Asbury Park Man Charged

BEDFORD, NH — A Seaside Heights man has been identified as one of two people killed in a New Hampshire motel, authorities said.

David Hanford, 60, was found dead in one of the motel rooms at Country Inn & Suites, 250 S. River Road, Bedford. A second man, Nathan Cashman, 28, of Manchester, New Hampshire, was found dead in the lobby of the motel of multiple chop wounds from a machete, authorities said.

Theodore L. Luckey, 42, of Asbury Park, has been charged with second-degree murder in the killings and was being held in jail in New Hampshire, officials said.

Luckey and Cashman were longtime friends, WMUR9 in Manchester, New Hampshire, reported.

Luckey had been released on parole from New Jersey state prison in May, where he had been serving a 15-year sentence in connection with a 2009 crime where he broke into an elderly couple's home in Ocean County and held them against their will while he tried to kill himself in their garage. Luckey had pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree kidnapping and one count of third-degree criminal restraint in connection with tying up his boyfriend in a motel room, according to court documents.

New Hampshire authorities have not released any information on a possible motive in the killings.

Hanford had been a registered sex offender in New Jersey and was still in the registry as of Monday evening, but the entry with his name was removed from the New Jersey State Police sex offender registry on Tuesday.

Luckey was also charged with three counts of being a felon in possession of a deadly weapon. The court complaints said he had under his control a machete-type knife, a pistol, and metallic knuckles, and had previously been convicted in the state of New Jersey of a felony.

With reporting by Jeffrey Hastings

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