The self-described hermit known to locals as 'River Dave' has been arrested for trespassing after he was found living on the land he was evicted from last year.
An 81-year-old New Hampshire man known to locals as"River Dave" has been arrested for trespassing again after he returned to live on land he had previously been told to vacate and was arrested last summer after he refused to leave.for accusations that he was squatting in a cabin on land owned by a separate Vermont man, saying the man's father gave permitted him to live on the land nearly 30 years prior, but nothing official was put into writing.
The fire that destroyed the cabin was determined to be an accident by Canterbury Fire Chief Michael Gamache. He said the men dismantling the cabin turned off solar panels that still had power running through them and used a power saw to cut through metal supports holding the panels to the roof, either of which could have caused the sparks that started the fire.
But he returned to the site in Canterbury in late November, turning the wood shed into a home. He was arrested and faces a court hearing in March. In the summer, he was jailed on a civil contempt sanction and was told he'd be released if he agreed to leave the cabin following a property dispute that goes back to 2016. The landowner, 86-year-old Leonard Giles, of South Burlington, Vermont, wanted Lidstone off the property.