BOSCAWEN, N.H. — A Newport grandfather and his adult grandson who have been missing since Monday when they set off for a Labor Day motorcycle ride are believed to have been killed in an accident off Route 4 in Boscawen, according to police.
Police responding to evidence of a crash site in woods near the Salisbury, N.H., town line Thursday afternoon found what are believed to be the bodies of Jerry Proper, 69, and his grandson, 22-year-old Cody Pillsbury, according to Newport Police Chief Brent Wilmot.
Family members had been notified, though formal identification was still pending from a coroner, Wilmot said Thursday night.
“Thank you everyone for your prayers, shares and any who helped look. I ask that you continue to pray for our family, my uncle and cousin were found not long ago. Not the answers we wanted but we now have closure,” Brandi Hodgins posted on Facebook. “RIP Uncle Jerry and Cody.”
The two men were reported missing after they left Proper’s Newport home on a Honda GL18R1 Trike motorcycle around 2 p.m. Monday. After cellphone data indicated that Pillsbury’s phone connected to a cell tower near Danbury and Andover, friends and relatives spent much of Thursday searching the Route 4 corridor.
Police checked surveillance video from stores and other businesses along Route 4. That led them to concentrate their search farther east of Danbury.
“A police officer found evidence of a crash site very deep into the woods” in Boscawen, and authorities discovered the bodies, Wilmot said.
New Hampshire Fish and Game and the New Hampshire State Police had also assisted in the search, and Newport police and state police used a helicopter on Wednesday to search, to no avail.
Laura Glynn, Proper’s daughter and Pillsbury’s mother, said a Labor Day bike ride was not unusual for the two men, who had gone on rides ever since Cody was 3 years old.
Family members were concerned about their whereabouts because both were diligent about letting people know of their plans.
Proper switched to the trike bike in February due to leg pain, she said.
Pillsbury worked at LaValley Building Supply in Newport, and Proper worked at Micro Precision, Inc., which has a location in Newport.