Family of Jacob Pothier say his phone is missing after accident that killed him in January

A legal letter serving as a notice to civil a lawsuit filed by the family of 18-year old Jacob Pothier claims that an inappropriate relationship between the Greater New Bedford Vocational Technical High School (GNBVT) student and the school’s 44-year old security officer Kathleen Martins was ignored by the school. On January 6th, 2024, the two would be involved in a serious car accident that resulted in the death of Jacob and serious injuries to Martins.

Last month, New Bedford Light reported that Pothier’s family took legal action against GNBVT for failure to protect Jacob from an “inappropriate and sexual relationship” that they say Pothier had with Martins for years. Attorney’s for the school have yet to reply to the letter sent by Pothier’s family attorney and former New Bedford Mayor, Scott Lang.

The police and GNBVT leadership aren’t very forthcoming with details and now Jacob Pothier’s phone, which could contain critical information about the alleged inappropriate relationship, is missing or damaged under unusual circumstances.

Fall River Reporter was the first to report that Martins was a former security officer at GNBVT while Pothier was a student. Martins had resigned from her position in 2023. After we sent an email to his office, Superintendent Michael Watson confirmed that Martins was a former employee. GNBVT issued a statement on the accident and the death of Pothier in the days after the accident but failed to mention Martins in the letter.

We recently reported that the investigation into the accident and Pothier’s death was still open and active, but family members of Jacob Pothier say that the state police investigating the accident have not returned Jacob’s phone to them.

Stacy Pothier, Jacob’s mother told Fall River Reporter that the night her son was killed, siblings of Jacob used their phones to check his phone location and determined the phone was pinging at 42 Quanapoag Road in East Freetown. The family provided a screenshot of his location as they saw it that night.

Jacob’s mother states that the family reached out to the Massachusetts State Police Detective Robert Twitchell who who was responsible for her son’s case. She states that he told them that 42 Quanapoag Road was the location was where the vehicle had been towed from the scene in Dartmouth and that he would retrieve the phone the following morning.

Big Wheel Towing and Recovery is the business located at that address and where Martin’s car was indeed towed after the crash.

The next morning, Jacob’s phone location was no longer available and showing “no location found.”

Stacey Pothier tells us that soon after, she spoke with Twitchell and he confirmed with her that he was able to secure the phone from the vehicle. Pothier said Twitchell told her he was going to take the phone back to the station and do a “data dump” and he would call her in a few days so she could pick up the phone. But she never heard back.

Approximately ten days later, Pothier reached out to the State Police who told her they did not have the phone. She said she then spoke with Twitchell who told her that he did not have the phone and did not know where the phone was. The phone that contained critical information regarding an allegedly inappropriate relationship with a student and a security officer had completely disappeared.

Jacob’s sister, Tiffani Pothier, confirmed with Fall River Reporter that Twitchell came by her mother’s home and told them that the phone was most likely “destroyed” and pieces of the phone were “swept up with the debris” from the scene. Tiffani says it didn’t make any sense.

“I felt like what I was hearing was from a movie. How was this happening?” she said.

Tiffani Pothier shares that she and her mother met with someone at the Bristol County District Attorney’s office and they confirmed that the phone was not with the Massachusetts State Police.

“I got upset. I swore. But what do I say? They are police officers and from the District Attorney, I couldn’t say anything.”

According to Stacey Pothier, no one in their family has ever been questioned in the investigation to this day.

Tiffani Pothier says she went to the school administration and told them her brother was having a sexual relationship with Martins.

“My brother wanted to end it and I know he said he was going to do it on his own time, but I had a bad feeling about Martins, so I told the school myself.”

Tiffani says that the school first said they needed “proof” before they took any action and after Martins resigned, they told her that they had fired her.

“They said they fired her but only later did I find out that they let her resign. They lied.”

Fall River Reporter also reached out to the Dartmouth Police Department for a statement on the investigation but we were told the matter is in the hands of the Massachusetts State Police.

After speaking with family, we reached out for an interview with Massachusetts State Police Officer Robert Twitchell but were told that Twitchell had been reassigned and the reassignment had nothing to do with this investigation. Massachusetts State Police would not confirm who is now the lead investigator in the case but that it is an open investigation and they can not comment.

We reached out to the Bristol County District Attorney’s office before going to print with this story and were told that there was nothing new to report, and that they were hoping to finalize their investigation soon.

Fall River Reporter has been working towards transparency in this story since Pothier’s death in January. Multiple public records requests to GNBVT for emails related to Pothier and Martin’s personnel file have been met with responses from a law firm representing the school district preventing access. To date, GNBVT has spent thousands of dollars in the appeals process, which we wrote about several months ago.

Two weeks ago, we submitted our latest request for the letter the school district was served by the Pothier family from their attorney and just today, we received yet again another letter from the law firm of Norris, Murray and Peloquin, LLC denying our request.