Atkinson police mourn two colleagues this week

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Atkinson police mourn two colleagues this week

By Meghan Carey
Staff writer

ATKINSON — The Atkinson Police Department lost two of its own this week.

Sgt. Diane Kinney, who had served the town for 35 years, died yesterday morning after a four-year battle with cancer, Chief Philip Consentino said. He said Kinney was in her late 60s.

Department members learned of her death when they returned from the funeral for Rose Ann Masello, a secretarial volunteer, who died of cancer Sunday.

Members of the Police Department have spent the past five months striking a balance between working and supporting Cpl. John Lapham, who is battling leukemia.

Lapham is in a burn unit in a Boston hospital "in his worst condition" since being diagnosed in December, Consentino said.

Those are tough numbers for a 21-member department.

Consentino said Kinney and Masello will be memorialized at the police station. But for now, he and many others are in mourning.

Kinney and Consentino shared quite a history. They worked together before police used portable radios, he said. They would call each other on the telephone when a report came in and go to the scene together. Their friendship went beyond work — they vacationed together and took care of each other, Consentino said.

Although she kept up to date with her officer certification, Kinney worked most recently as a dispatcher. She went through radiation and chemotherapy a number of times in the last four years, but Consentino said she always made her way back to the station.

"She never let anyone know it was that bad," he said.

The same goes for Masello, who always had a smile on her face and had everyone "in stitches," Consentino said. Although Masello was a volunteer, Consentino said she was truly a member of the department and will not be easily replaced.

"She was too young and too energetic," he said.

Masello, 62, began volunteering at the station when she moved to Atkinson in 2005, Lt. William Baldwin said.

"She was wonderful," Baldwin said. "I knew her outside, too, because her son is a good friend. So, it's particularly hard."

While they mourn the loss of Masello and Kinney, department members continue to pray for Lapham, an eight-year veteran of the force.

Shortly after receiving a bone marrow transplant last month, the 39-year-old Lapham developed a rash. The rash quickly turned into second-degree burns all over his body, his father said.

"They don't know what caused it," Stan Lapham said. "He's developed a reaction or a drug interaction or a drug stem cell interaction."

Doctors put John Lapham in an induced coma last week because his pain was so extreme, but took him out of it on Saturday night, Stan Lapham said. He has to be in strict isolation until his skin heals, his father said. He can't have visitors because chemotherapy and radiation compromised his immune system.

Despite the burns, Stan Lapham said, the bone marrow transplant team says the transplant is still working. They expect John Lapham to be in the hospital for months before he can return home to Chester.

Stan Lapham said earlier this week that he heard about Masello and Kinney.

"We pray for them all," he said. "When you get into something, you realize how great this community is. The support we're getting is what keeps my wife and I going."

I knew Sgt. Kinney when I was a kid, and she was a remarkable woman, who deserves our attention.