MILFORD – The son of 2003 homicide victim Paul Herlihy is in jail awaiting trial on a bail jumping charge from 2004.

Douglas F. Herlihy, 26, of 425 Nashua St. (last known address), was arraigned in the Milford district court on Dec. 29 on a charge of failure to appear in court on April 15, 2004, on a charge of taking his father’s car without consent.

The death of his father, Paul Herlihy, 51, in August of 2003 was determined to be a homicide. No one has ever been charged and no suspect, weapon or motive was ever identified. The state said Herlihy died from some kind of “blunt force trauma,” and the case is among those in the files of the state’s Cold Case Unit.

According to police, less than two weeks before his father’s body was found in the house at 425 Nashua St., Douglas Herlihy took his father’s 1995 Lincoln Mark VIII without permission. Police found him in Saugus, Mass., sleeping in the car with drugs in his possession. He pleaded guilty to unauthorized use of the car and received a suspended sentence.

According to a Oct. 28, 2011 court affidavit, New Hampshire authorities learned in December of 2003 that Douglas was convicted of a crime in Massachusetts, and filed a motion to impose the suspended sentence. Douglas was given a court date of April 15, 2004. When he failed to appear Milford Judge Paul Moore issued a bench warrant.

Recently New Hampshire authorities learned that Douglas was being held in a Massachusetts jail and was scheduled for release in February.

Douglas is now scheduled for trial on Jan. 12 at 8:30 a.m. in Milford and is being held in the Hillsborough County House of Corrections in lieu of $20,000 cash bail.

“Based on his criminal history, including arrests and incarcerations in New York State and Massachusetts, his continuous absence tolled (suspends) the statute of limitations on his failure to appear,” according to the affidavit.

Douglas was 17 at the time of his father’s death.

Kathy Cleveland can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 21, or kcleveland@nashuatelegraph.com.