CENTER HARBOR – Police Chief Mark Chase said yesterday that alcohol and speed contributed to the motorcycle death of a Canaan man on Daniel Webster Highway on June 9. Chase said Robert Curtis III was pronounced dead at the scene.
Chase said he interviewed a person who had been traveling north with Curtis who told him Curtis passed a group of motorcycles while traveling north at estimated speed of 80 miles per hour.
He said a witness told him Curtis had been drinking in Laconia just prior to the crash.
Chase said the people Curtis passed also told him Curtis was driving about 80 miles per hour. He was not wearing a helmet.
Curtis crashed on the curve near Waukewan Road. Chase said a resident of the home in front of the crash site saw the crash and estimated Curtis was traveling about 60 miles an hour when he failed to negotiate the curve a little north of the Mug Restaurant.
Chase said the witness told him Curtis hit some soft sand near the outer edge of the curve and lost control of his 2006 Harley Davidson.
"There were no skid marks and no evidence of braking," Chase said yesterday.
"Anytime there is a loss of life it's a tragedy. Anytime there's a loss of life that involves alcohol and speed as contributing factors, it makes it even more tragic," Chase said.
He said Meredith and the New Hampshire State Police assisted at the scene.

LACONIA – A former Gilford man who is charged in the Monday morning strangling death of a man who lived in the same support home as he did on McGrath Street is being held without bail after appearing by video in district court yesterday.
Kasey Riley, 19, of 24 McGrath St. is charged with one count of second-degree murder for recklessly and with extreme indifference causing the death of 27-year-old Zachary March.
After Riley's appearance, Prosecuting Atty. Geoffrey Ward said "reckless" in this context means Riley was allegedly aware of a substantial risk to March but chose to act anyway. He declined to comment on the homicide saying only it was "within the first 48 hours" and still a very active investigation.
Public Defender Jesse Friedman, who was in the 4th Circuit Court yesterday morning, and Public Defender John Bresaw, who was with Riley in the video conference room at the Belknap County House of Corrections, declined a public reading of the charge and said they would argue bail at a later date.
Friedman challenged the state's motion to seal the affidavits that support their decision to arrest and charge Riley with March's murder. He said Judge Jim Carroll granted the state's motion to seal them before Riley was arrested and charged.
Without the state's affidavits, Friedman said he could not represent his client with the zealousness he deserves under both state and federal law.
"Just because it's a homicide it doesn't change the Constitution," Friedman said, arguing for the disclosure of the affidavits charging that the prosecution is keeping "secret" information as to why Riley was arrested and is being held without bail.
"The state holds the key. They chose when to arrest, " he said, referring to the prosecution's option to arrest someone and filed charges when ever they want.
With members of March's family sitting in the row behind them lawyers Geoffrey Ward and Jay McCormack argued the defense has no "actual authority" to have the information.
Freidman contended the state's has no right to withhold the information from the Riley's lawyers. He said it was Riley's fundamental right under the N.H. Constitution and the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to have a justification for his arrest and detention without the possibility of bail.
Friedman filed a written motion to have the affidavits supplied to his office and Judge Jim Carroll ruled the state has two days – or until Thursday at noon - to respond to the motion in writing. He promised a ruling the same afternoon.
A second motion to make the affidavits available to the public was filed by the Concord Monitor under the Right To Know law.
During his appearance, Riley stood silently next to Bresaw, and stared into the video monitor.
Laconia Police responded to 24 McGrath Street Monday at 1:42 a.m. and found March unresponsive, according to a press release issued by the N.H. Attorney General's Office. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of death was strangulation.
The same media release said Riley was in the house when police arrived.
Laconia Police said yesterday they have had previous interactions with March and Riley but Lt. Rich Simmons said neither had ever been charged with any crime by his department. Simmons declined further comment.
The Sun has also learned that as of May 22, Riley was living at 21 Academy St. At press time it is not known why Riley left Academy Street.

Twenty-four McGrath Street, according to Genesis Executive Director Maggie Pritchard, is a home for up to 10 adults who face potential homelessness and who may have emotion and/or mental issues. She declined to comment specifically on either Riley or March, citing federal-mandated medical privacy laws.

LACONIA — "If you live in the Lakes Region and you want to raise money, the one week to do it is Bike Week," said Keith Hall, who for years has served as "day captain" on the Monday of the rally for the Laconia Rotary Club, which for two decades has raffled off a Harley-Davidson motorcycle for charity.
Hall, the owner of Kramer & Hall Goldsmiths, said he came to Laconia 38 years ago and for the first 17 steered clear of The Weirs during Motorcycle Week, before becoming a fixture when the Rotarians began the raffle. He recalled that the club was pondering ways to raise money when Wendy Perkins, who worked at the Harley-Davidson dealership in Meredith, suggested raffling a motorcycle. "Once we started selling raffle tickets," Hall said, "we realized that the bikers coming to the rally were people just like anybody else."
Usually accompanied by his wife Lilo, Hall takes the day off work, arrives at the booth , a 25-foot space on Lakeside Avenue provided by the New Hampshire Veterans Association, by 9 a.m. and stays till the close after dark. "It's not just me," he stressed. "This is not a one-man show. It's a lot of good people putting in a lot of their time to raise money for the community." When a third of the booth disappeared while in storage, Hall said members bought the lumber and hardware and assembled it, refusing to be reimbursed.
Hall explained that each year the Rotary Club purchases a Harley-Davidson Motorcycle. This year the prize is a Heritage Softtail Classic FLSTC 103, a quintessential boulevard cruiser bred for the open road. Including the cost of the bike, the club incurs expenses of between $20,000 and $25,000 trailering it to events around New England in the quest for ticket sales. "The labor is all volunteers," Hall said. "We have members who may appear very quiet, but when when you need somebody you only have to ask and there they are volunteering."
"We aim to sell as many tickets as we can and generally sell at least $45,000 over and above expenses," Hall said, estimating that each year the raffle raises between $30,000 and $40,000. "Rotary Park. That's Bike Week money. A room at the Laconia Public Library. Bike Week money $10,000 a year in scholarships," he continued. "It's all Bike Week money." Altogether the Rotarians contribute to some two dozen organizations, including the Lakes Region Youth Leadership Program, Laconia Public Library Summer Reading Program, Laconia Youth Soccer, Laconia Little League, Laconia Youth Hockey, Salvation Army, Senior Santa and the Laconia Fire and Police Departments.
Over the years, the Rotarians have not been alone as other organizations also raffle motorcycles . "They're not competitors," Hall remarked. "The person who buys a raffle ticket for a Harley-Davidson goes to everybody who's selling them." He remembered when three different groups were holding raffles within sight of one another on Lakeside Avenue. "There was a drawing at four another at a quarter past and another at four-thirty and the crowd would come down the street from the one to the next," he remarked. "All for a good cause."