Questions linger after DA explains a life lost at sea
It seemed like the perfect way to start the July Fourth weekend: Eight men and women, including a retired commander of a State Police homicide unit and three current State Police homicide detectives, spending a lazy afternoon on a pleasure boat in Boston Harbor.
But the July 3 outing ended with anguish and painful questions after a member of the party, a well-liked Quincy court officer, vanished in the harbor as, one witness described it, he prepared to pull in protective fenders from the port side of the boat. Everyone, including four men trained to observe their surroundings, told authorities they never saw a thing.
The Coast Guard launched an intensive air-and-sea search, but it was as if 59-year-old Anthony U. Tufo had vaporized. A lobsterman found his body nine days later, floating in the harbor near a runway at Logan International Airport.
On Thursday, Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe released the results of a police investigation into the death. His 1 1/2-page memorandum concluded that the fa ther of three fell overboard when no one was looking, struck the propeller of the motorboat and died of massive injuries. O'Keefe called it a tragic accident.
"The one thing this case illustrates is that you're out on the water, you're going very slowly, it's a beautiful day and everybody's enjoying themselves - you still have to be very, very careful on a boat," he said in an interview.
Investigators specifically looked into whether the owner and pilot of the 37-foot Sea Ray, Joseph F. Flaherty, was impaired by alcohol, but found no evidence that he was, O'Keefe said. He was not given a breathalyzer test.
Flaherty is the retired commander of the State Police homicide unit at the Suffolk district attorney's office and is married to a daughter of former state attorney general Francis X. Bellotti, the former Nina Bellotti. Tufo, a Quincy District Court officer for 16 years and avid marathon runner, was married to another Bellotti daughter, the former Mary Elizabeth Bellotti.
But Tufo's sister, Bella Travaglini, a freelance writer who contributes to the Globe, said she still finds a central question about her brother's death unfathomable.
"I find it difficult to reconcile in my mind how no one saw my brother go off that boat," said Travaglini, who was among family members recently briefed by O'Keefe on his findings. In a reflection on her brother published in the Globe this month, Travaglini wrote, "Seven other sets of eyes, and no one saw anything."
Rudy Cataldo, a friend of Tufo's who was on the boat, said he, too, finds the death incomprehensible - and he was there.
"Nobody can believe that seven people didn't see this guy fall off the boat," said the Andover real estate agent. "And nobody did. Nobody saw it."
Flaherty, whose boat was named the Nina Maria after his wife, could not be reached for comment at his law office or on his cellphone.
Tufo's widow said in a brief phone interview that O'Keefe had recently shared his findings with her, but she declined to comment on them.
Since her husband's death, she has hired a well-known Boston lawyer, Thomas R. Kiley, whose clients include an A-list of political insiders. Kiley said he is seeking to have the probate court appoint her as the administrator of Anthony Tufo's estate in preparation for the filing of legal action, such as an insurance claim.
Francis Bellotti, the 85-year-old father-in-law of Tufo and Flaherty, did not return phone calls to his law office in Boston.
The accident occurred on a Thursday, a few hours after Flaherty and Tufo had traveled in the boat from Braintree to Charlestown to pick up three State Police detectives, two court stenographers, and Cataldo.
Authorities have confirmed that the three detectives were Sergeant Robert Murphy, Kevin Condon, and Tim MacDougall, who work in the Suffolk district attorney's homicide unit. Murphy declined to discuss Tufo's death last week; the other detectives did not return phone calls. The detectives had taken vacation time for the outing and were off duty, said David Procopio, a State Police spokesman.
O'Keefe would not identify the court stenographers, the only women on the boat, but said they were friends of the detectives.
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley turned over the case to O'Keefe to avoid a potential conflict of interest, given that Flaherty used to run the Suffolk homicide unit and the detectives work there. Boston Police Detective Lieutenant Robert Merner handled the investigation.
After Flaherty and Tufo picked up the six passengers about 2:30 p.m., Cataldo said, several had drinks and shrimp above deck in the sunshine while the boat was secured in Charlestown. They then traveled to the Winthrop Yacht Club, where the group ran up a tab of $97 on appetizers and drinks, Cataldo said, before setting off for the return trip to Charlestown by 5:20 p.m.
Flaherty and Tufo had each probably had a few drinks during the afternoon, Cataldo said, but "there was nobody that was drunk on that boat."
About 10 minutes after the boaters began their return trip in windswept, choppy waters, Cataldo said, Tufo asked Flaherty whether he should pull in the fenders. Flaherty said sure. Cataldo said he saw Tufo - who like the other passengers was not wearing a life jacket - walking along a catwalk and holding onto a railing. Cataldo turned to chat with Flaherty.
A moment later, Cataldo said, he looked up but didn't see Tufo.
"I said, 'Where's Tony?' and Joe says he must have been in the cabin," Cataldo recalled. "I went down in the cabin and looked around and I didn't see him. I came up and I said, 'Joe, he's not there.' He said, 'Are you kidding me?' "
As puzzlement turned to panic, Flaherty radioed for the Coast Guard, which sent a boat to the Nina Maria within minutes, Cataldo said.
O'Keefe said a Coast Guard officer boarded the Nina Maria, interviewed all seven passengers, and found no indication that Flaherty was impaired. O'Keefe said the officer had no probable cause to ask police agencies that also responded, including the Boston police, to give a breathalyzer test.
"The evidence is clear that there was no impairment, with respect to the issue of alcohol," O'Keefe said.
Some of the passengers told authorities that they had felt a splash around the time Tufo vanished and thought the boat hesitated, but presumed it was because of choppy water or the wake of another boat, O'Keefe said.
The Nina Maria ultimately returned to the Winthrop Yacht Club and the Coast Guard began an intensive search for Tufo despite a powerful thunderstorm.
Winthrop Fire Chief Paul Flanagan, a longtime friend of Tufo who helped in the search, said Flaherty initially said Tufo probably disappeared somewhere near Deer Island, but moved the location about a quarter-mile west, closer to the airport, a few days later.
On July 12, Tufo's body was found. An autopsy listed the causes of death as bleeding to death and drowning.
O'Keefe said toxicology tests showed Tufo had alcohol in his body "consistent with what he was reported to have had to drink," but O'Keefe declined to provide specifics.
Procopio said the "troopers on the boat, like so many others who knew Mr. Tufo, are grieving the loss of a good man."
Cataldo, who met Tufo when they were in high school, said he lost his best friend in an instant.
"This thing happened so fast that it's astounding," he said. "I still can't believe it to this day."
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com. 