A veteran Foxborough police detective has been assigned the full-time job of looking into the town’s past to see how a former teacher and Boy Scout leader was able to sexually abuse dozens of children over decades.
At least 28 men have come forward since September to accuse William E. Sheehan, 74, of rape and sexual abuse between 1961, when he began teaching, and 1981, when he left town for a job in Florida. A handful of men say they also reported the alleged abuse to Foxborough police in 1998.
Sheehan died in Fort Myers in 2017 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease, never arrested or convicted of sexual abuse.
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Here's what we know now:
1962: William Sheehan, 24, begins his teaching career in Foxborough.
1963: Volunteers as scout master of Foxborough’s Troop 70.
1981: Moves with his family to Fort Myers. Teaches at San Carlos Park Elementary. Oversees water sports at the Boy Scouts' Camp Miles.
1989: Aaron Avehart alleges Sheehan is sexually molesting him at Camp Miles, but Charlotte County Sheriff's Office investigators find no grounds to pursue the case.
1990: Sheehan resigns from the school district, his teaching license revoked.
1998: A Foxborough man alleges Sheehan sexually molested him in the 1970s. More complaints follow, with striking similarities.
2012: Massachusetts detectives travel to Fort Myers to arrest Sheehan but find him in the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
2016: Averhart and other Sheehan accusers in Foxborough discover one another for the first time.
2017: Sheehan dies in a Fort Myers nursing home from complications of Alzheimer’s disease, never arrested or convicted of a crime.
"nearly 50 Foxborough men have identified themselves as survivors of rape or other sexual abuse by Sheehan; but only one in Southwest Florida."
