He Was Dave

Erin Sullivan: HUDSON — At 10 o'clock Tuesday night, Amy Reyburn-Phibbs drove down the dirt path beside her house that led into the woods where a man named Dave lived.

Dave was in his late 60s, a slight, sunken man who walked with a cane, his skin yellowed, his dark hair long. He and a cat named Kitty lived in a small home on cinder blocks. Dave had no plumbing, electricity or a front door, but he had a horseshoe nailed above the entrance and a picture of Jesus taped to a wall.

When Reyburn-Phibbs and her husband rented their home on Oak Drive seven months ago, the landlord told them about Dave, living back there in the woods about 200 paces from their house, and said he was harmless. In that…