A suspect has been apprehended following a dramatic break-in at a luxurious $20 million oceanfront estate in Massachusetts. Two masked intruders reportedly assaulted a housekeeper, restraining her at gunpoint, before making off with valuables worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The suspect, identified as 25-year-old Emajae Brown, faces a litany of charges including home invasion, kidnapping, armed assault, and burglary. He is also accused of larceny exceeding $1,200, theft of a motor vehicle, and breaking into a building at night with the intent to commit a felony.
Authorities took Brown into custody in Gloucester, with prosecutors deeming him a community threat, as reported by Boston 25 News.
The incident unfolded on the morning of March 28 when a concerned neighbor on Paine Avenue in Beverly, Massachusetts, dialed 911 to report the home invasion.
According to investigators, the two armed suspects infiltrated the mansion, attacking and binding the housekeeper inside before fleeing with a haul of valuable items. At the time of the crime, the housekeeper was the sole occupant of the residence.
Investigators learned that two armed suspects had broken into the mansion and assaulted and tied up a housekeeper who was inside the home before leaving with several valuable items. The housekeeper was the only person home at the time of the incident.
During the burglary, the suspects allegedly grabbed the housekeeper’s phone and tossed it in the ocean, according to CBS Boston. They also allegedly made her find bleach and place valuable items in trash bags.
“What they did to my housekeeper was just horrendous,” homeowner Thomas Swan III told WCVB last month after the heist.
“She was held at gunpoint, sometimes dragged by her hair, ultimately tied up and left in the garage. She’s really, really special, but truly traumatized by this, truly traumatized,” he added.
The housekeeper was the only person home at the time of the break-in. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
After the suspects left, the housekeeper escaped and went to a neighbor’s home to call for help. She was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and later released.
“She went on to tell investigators the suspect was pointing a firearm at her head and escorting her around the home,” a prosecutor said in court on Tuesday, according to CBS Boston.
One robber fled the scene with several valuables, including money and gold, in a Porsche stolen from the home. That vehicle was later located by police several miles away near a cemetery in Lynn.
Ring cameras were able to locate Brown, who was tracked through phone surveillance to New York City, where he was allegedly meeting with a jewelry dealer, according to Boston 25 News.
A photo of 34 Paine Avenue in Beverly, Massachusetts, where an armed robbery took place. (Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Local and federal authorities eventually found more than $300,000 and numerous gold items in his car, the outlet reported.
Police also said Brown was the ex-boyfriend of another housekeeper who worked at the home. The prosecutor said they learned that Brown had an open domestic charge from an incident at the Encore Boston Harbor casino.
Brown was ordered held without bail until the next hearing on April 21.
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