Douglas Herlihy Pleads Guilty in 2003 Father Killing, Facing Up to 24 Years

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 25

Douglas Herlihy, 40, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2003 killing of his father, Paul Herlihy, under a deal that calls for 12 to 24 years in prison.
Investigators said Paul Herlihy, 50, was beaten to death in his Milford, New Hampshire, home, where police found his body wrapped in carpet and a tarp, blood spatter across the kitchen, and bloodstained carpet padding outside Douglas Herlihy’s bedroom window.
The cold case gained traction after a 2020 arrest, when Douglas Herlihy allegedly told an officer, “I beat my first body when I was 17,” a remark cited in the later arrest affidavit.
A June 2025 warrant led to his arrest in Saugus, Massachusetts, extradition to New Hampshire, and charges of second-degree murder and falsifying physical evidence before the plea reduced the case to manslaughter.
Sentencing is set for early 2027, closing a case New Hampshire’s attorney general said showed cold-case investigators would keep pursuing accountability decades after a homicide.