New Ipswich Mzrket, 575 Turnpike Road, New Ipswich

NEW IPSWICH — State police troopers called in the pre-dawn hours of Christmas morning to the New Ipswich Market, 575 Turnpike Road, arrived to find the store owner, an employee, a smashed-out window and a large amount of missing money and cigarettes, police said.

The owner and the employee told police that when they got to the store shortly before 5 a.m. they discovered the smashed window, and determined that a “large sum of money and cigarettes” had been removed from the store.

But thanks to the presence of video surveillance cameras, the owner and troopers were able to identify “a person of interest” named Daniel Depauw, a 48-year-old resident of New Ipswich.

A short time later, troopers located Depauw at a gas station in Milford, where he was questioned initially, police said.

Several days later, on Jan. 5, troopers, “through a thorough investigation,” were able to conduct a follow-up interview with Depauw, the topic being the burglary they suspected him of conducting.

It was during that interview, police said, that Depauw confessed to allegedly being the person observed in the store’s surveillance videos — and the person who allegedly “took the money and cigarettes on Christmas morning.”

The troopers at that point took Depauw into custody, charging him with one count each of burglary and theft, both of which are Class B felonies.

Depauw was booked and later released on personal recognizance bail pending arraignment, which is scheduled for Feb. 9 in Hillsborough County Superior Court South in Nashua.

Police noted that the case remains open, and ask anyone who may have additional information to contact Trooper William Moran at 223-8492 or william.j.moran@dos.nh.gov.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.