Questions remain 1 year after fatality

NASHUA – More than a year after Gordon Maynard’s death, the Maynard family is still hungry for answers.

Maynard died July 18, 2008, 10 days after a crash near the intersection of Concord Street and Hills Ferry Road in Nashua.

The well-known real-estate appraiser and co-owner of the Milford Diner was 50.

Nashua Police and the Hillsborough County Attorney’s Office say they are still investigating the crash.

Joseph Fricano, an assistant county attorney, said his office is still reviewing the investigatory files and hopes to decide by the end of August what charges, if any, to file against the other driver, Steven Upson, of Nashua.

Meanwhile, Nancy Lamb, Maynard’s sister, said the family held a memorial Mass in Maynard’s honor on July 18. She said it has been difficult not knowing exactly why the crash happened.

“It’s tough,” said Lamb, of Merrimack. “Obviously, it’s very tough on the family that we have no closure. We don’t know what’s going on.

“It’s been tough, but if we could get some answers, it would probably ease it a little bit.”

“It’s been a hard year,” said Jackie Maynard, Gordon Maynard’s mother. “It’s been a terrible, terrible year. We don’t know anything and nobody seems to want to say anything.”

Nashua Police Lt. John Fisher said he couldn’t comment because the investigation is ongoing.

When police were called to Concord Street near Kirkpatrick’s Corner Store around 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 10, they found Maynard lying in the center of the road, several feet from his Oldsmobile sedan. His car had crashed into a utility pole, causing him to be thrown from the vehicle.

Police investigating the crash said Maynard struck the pole after colliding with a Subaru Outback driven by Upson that had already crashed into another vehicle.

Upson first collided with another car at the intersection with Bartlett Avenue, police said. A Merrimack couple, Frank and Carol Furlong, of 11 Pine Tree Lane, suffered minor injuries in the crash, police said.

After colliding with Maynard’s vehicle, Upson’s Subaru went on to crash into a parked car in the Kirkpatrick Corner Store parking lot and then into a telephone stand, police said.

Witnesses said they saw Upson get out of his car shortly after the final collision and sit down in a nearby chair, where he appeared to have a seizure, police said.

At the time of the crash, Nashua Police Lt. Bruce Hansen said it was possible that Upson suffered a medical condition that contributed to the collisions.

Maynard was well known, especially in Nashua, and about 1,000 people attended his funeral.

Lamb said she thinks it’s unfair that her family has had to wait more than a year without getting any answers.

“After a year, I would think we would have some kind of report or something like that, but obviously, we don’t,” she said. “We just need some closure as a family. I just don’t think it’s fair that we don’t have any answers.”

Maynard’s friends said he was badly injured in the crash, but that he had been able to speak in the following days. However, he suffered a medical complication during his recovery that rendered him unconscious, they said.