A young Medfield mother of three children reported she was overpowered and criminally attacked in her cottage home Monday by a rifle-toting, masked man who fled into nearby woods after ripping the telephone from the wall to prevent her calling aid.
.Screams of the terror-stricken victim were heard by a neighbor and a passing motorist, who discovered her plight.
They sounded an alarm which brought Medfield police racing to the scene. Acting Norwood Police Chief James Murphy and Patrolman George Sanborn, both heavily armed, joined officers from four nearby communities and the Framingham state police barracks.
More than 50 officers were sent to a heavily wooded area in Walpole where the attacker was be-lived trapped and the state police bloodhounds “Sid” and “Said’* were rushed from the Andover state police barracks to aid in the manhunt.
Several hours later the concentrated search was abandoned and the bloodhounds were returned to Andover after failing to find any trace of the fugitive.
Mrs. Barbara MacGray, 32, said she was ambushed in a bedroom of her small white cottage home in Forest Street, near Granite, located in a wooded area about two miles from the center of town. The house, screened by shrubbery and trees, is set back about 75 feet from the roadway.
Mrs. MacGray, whose husband, Charles, 33, was at work, told police she had been hanging clothes in the yard a few minutes before being attacked.
A set of fingerprints was taken from the looted metal cash box which it is hoped may lead to identifying the attacker The box and the victim’s tom clothing were removed to the Framingham barracks.
Two of the victim’s three children were in the house when their mother was attacked. The eldest, aged 3, was playing in a neighboring backyard.
Mrs. MacGray described the attacker as about 5-foot-nine, 160 pounds, and about 30 years of age.
(All articles originally appeared in the Norwood Messenger unless otherwise noted)