About the Cann Girls Trust
Some time after returning home from a concert at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts, on Saturday, August 25, 2007, sisters Danielle and Brittany Cann, ages 15 and 12, experienced an unimaginable, devastating horror.
Their mother’s volatile ex-boyfriend, who had been in and out of their lives for eight years, shot and killed the family dog before continuing his rampage against the girls and their mother. It’s not clear who he shot first, but mom Elizabeth (Beth) Cann, 44, was shot and killed in her second floor bedroom at 384 Reservoir Avenue in the suburb of Norton, Massachusetts, and Danielle and Brittany were left to die in the hallway outside their mother’s room, both with gunshot wounds to the head.
Robert McDermott, 39, who had lived in both Norton and Mansfield, thought he killed everyone in the house before driving to the Windsor Gardens MBTA Station on the Franklin Commuter Rail Line in Walpole at 5:40 a.m. on Sunday, August 26. Standing on the tracks, he shot himself with the same .44 caliber, six shot, black powder revolver he used on the girls and their mom moments before being crushed by a train.
Another day went by before the girl’s father, Wayne Cann, discovered the tragic scene and called 9-1-1. He had been asked to go to the house by his oldest daughter, Amanda, 17, who was on vacation in Florida and couldn’t reach her mom. Inside, miraculously — more than 30 hours after being shot — Danielle and Brittany were still alive.
Rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in nearby Providence, RI, the sisters were not expected to survive. Family and friends, the community and complete strangers held vigils and prayed while trying to make sense of what had occurred.
Beth
Cann, described as sweet, nice, boisterous and generous, loving, patient
and spiritual, was divorced from her high school sweetheart Wayne. Beth was
a nail technician for Nu-Image Nails on Main Street in Norton and was known
as a free spirit who liked to laugh and to dance. She was devoted to her
three girls and to her church, Trinitarian Congregational on East Main Street.
Somehow, Beth Cann got involved with Robert McDermott. There is not much known about McDermott except that he and Beth fought frequently leading to calls to the police and a restraining order in 2005 that was later rescinded by Beth so they could “try to work things out.” In 2000, he was charged with threatening to do bodily harm — although whether this was related to Beth or her family is not certain — but he was found innocent. In 2004 and 2005, there were reports made to the Department of Social Services alleging McDermott was neglecting Beth’s daughters, but no action was taken. Wayne Cann had asked a judge to remove his three daughters from the home his ex-wife shared with McDermott and to be granted full custody, but he dropped the case after being convinced he could not win. McDermott was known to hide in the bushes with a camera to shoot pictures of neighborhood kids he thought were plotting to gang up on him.
Each
day since the shooting, Danielle and Brittany defy what had happened to them.
Although both suffered severe brain trauma, they continue to improve each
day. With two shots to her head, Brittany, now 13, was unresponsive for her
first two weeks in the hospital. Transferred from Rhode Island Hospital to
the adjoining Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Brittany was not expected to be
able to walk or talk as a result of her injury, but now this Norton 7th grader,
known as a very-well liked, all-around nice kid, is walking and talking on
her own. After five weeks at Hasbro, Brittany was discharged with vision
problems in a droopy left eye and a scar on the side of her head.
Danielle’s
injury, caused by a single gun shot to her head, caused her to need seven
surgeries in the first nine weeks at Rhode Island Hospital, mostly to remove
bone and bullet fragments. She remembers feeling the barrel of the gun against
her head and McDermott saying, “lights out” as he pulled the trigger. This
Norton High School 10th grader, now 16, continues to struggle, being readmitted
to the hospital for complications on several occasions.
Amanda, the oldest sister who was thankfully away when this inexplicable event occurred, also suffers. Although her call to her father arguably saved Danielle and Brittany’s lives, she remains in shock over her mother’s death, the violence against her sisters, and even for being spared. Amanda is now 18 and a senior at Norton High School.
All three girls now live with their dad. Wayne, who is remarried and lives in Easton. He considers his daughters’ recovery to be his full-time job. The family home is bursting with the addition of his three girls, but a nurturing environment in which they all can try to heal.
The community has come out in force to help the family through this process. The Norton police officer’s and patrolman’s union held a golf tournament, a local pub held a raffle and donated sales proceeds, Danielle’s basketball team raised money, and the coach road 1,300 miles from Orlando by bicycle to earn funds to help the girls. The Norton public school teachers and staff held fundraising events, churches have joined the effort, and many local business establishments have tried to offset the cost of current and future medical and living expenses.
In addition to these efforts to support the family and their needs, a special Managed Trust has been established to allow individuals and corporations to donate money to help all three Cann girls now and in the future. The Cann Girls Trust is managed by a volunteer Board of Trustees through Bristol County Savings Bank of Taunton, MA for the purpose of providing the girls with supplemental health care, rehabilitation, counseling, and education as needed. While donations to the fund are not tax deductible, contributors should feel gratified their support will benefit an extremely good cause — supporting these three “beautiful, energetic and strong-willed girls”, as their father describes them, through the loss of their mother and ongoing recovery. In addition, contributors should be confident the fund will be managed properly by a team of compassionate community leaders.
Cann Girls Trust Board of Trustees
Mike Kirby
Editor, Sun Chronicle Newspaper
Kim Thomas
Executive Director, New Hope Inc. Works to end domestic violence and sexual
assault
Bill Kelly
Bristol County Savings Bank
Tony Rando
Owner, Bristol Place Limited Partnership
Chris Rapppold
Founder, Personal Best Karate and National Karate Champion
Joe Rando
President, Land Development - Northeast, Inc.
Kelly Fox
Business Financial Advisor, Ameriprise Financial
Services, Inc. and President of the Attleboro Area Council for Children