Secrecy pact collapsed, leading to charges in 1969 murder of Tewksbury teen

The three teens assaulted the terrified McCabe while Shelley drove them to Maple Street in Lowell, the report said. At the time, Maple Street was a vacant lot.

Once there, the three teens tied McCabe’s hands and feet with a rope and covered his eyes and mouth with adhesive tape. The goal was to “teach him a lesson,’’ according to the report.

With McCabe on the ground and visibly struggling, the three got back into Shelley’s car and drove off, returning about two hours later. When they returned about two hours later, the teens discovered that McCabe was dead, the report said.

“The three were fearful that they would be caught,’’ according to the report. “They talked that if they never disclosed what they’d done to John McCabe, they’d never be caught.’’

Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Prosecutor Thomas O’Reilly said in court: “They made an agreement they would never talk about it.’’

While Shelley and Ferreira are named in the report, Brown is not. Instead, the third person present at the crime is described as a cooperating witness whose name is being withheld "due to the sensitive nature of the investigation." The report relies heavily on the confidential witness's testimony. Authorities would not confirm that the witness was Brown.

But Brown's wife, Carolyn Brown, said in a brief interview today in the doorway of the couple's Londonderry home that he had cooperated with police.

Asked why Brown had come forward after so many years, she first said, "He's an honorable man." When pressed about his motivation a second time, she said, "I can't speak for him about that."

She would not offer any further details, and she said Brown was not available for comment.

Authorities said the investigation was propelled forward by the McCabe family – and because detectives repeatedly “appealed to the consciences’’ of people with knowledge of the case.

Ferreira was arraigned in Exeter District Court in New Hampshire on a fugitive from justice warrant and was ordered held on $500,000 cash bail. He is expected to return to Massachusetts next week.

Shelley pleaded not guilty in Lowell District where bail was set at $500,000 cash. He had no prior criminal record, according to his attorney, Stephen Neyman. He said that Shelley has known for the past three years that the McCabe case was reopened, but remained in Tewksbury nevertheless.

Brown appeared separately. In contrast to Shelley, Brown was released on personal recognizance.

At a news conference at City Hall attended by McCabe’s elderly parents and two sisters, Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said an “incredible turn of events’’ led to the charges against the men.

“The investigators on this case as well as the victim’s family never gave up hope that those responsible for the murder of John McCabe would be held accountable for his death,’’ Leone said.

McCabe’s elderly parents did not speak, leaving it to McCabe’s two sisters to talk on their behalf.

“From the bottom of our hearts, thank you,’’ the sisters said. They hugged law enforcement officials gathered to announce the arrests.

According to Boston Globe accounts from 1969, McCabe's body was found by children playing in the area on Sept. 27, 1969.

At the time, police told the Globe and other news outlets that they believed McCabe died because he knew something about drug trafficking in Tewksbury.

According to the current police report, both Shelley and Ferreira were suspected of having a role in McCabe’s death, and drugs were not the motive for McCabe's death.