Family mourns; Son lived with love, pain, crime.

• Author: Lee, Brian
• Position: News

Byline: Brian Lee

A former Worcester man may well be remembered for allegedly robbing a Southbridge bank and committing suicide at a Worcester hospital.

But Richard Lunt, who would have turned 34 this month, was a good man who simply lost his way, and was on the verge of dying from skin cancer, his loved ones say.

Mr. Lunt, who was living with his fiance in Sandwich, had metastasized Stage 4 melanoma.

Mr. Lunt was diagnosed more than three years ago, and doctors in Hyannis had recently told him he was too sick to continue chemotherapy, his aunt, Rosemary Gleason said.

Family and friends sat at Ms. Gleason's dining room table in Worcester Thursday night and shared stories about Mr. Lunt, who had worked in construction and was the father of two young boys.

They remembered Mr. Lunt as artistic, poetic and well-mannered. They said he always thought of others first, and never forgot his friends. They recalled how he had taken care of two aging men before they died.

But it is hard to ignore that he was wanted for unarmed robbery in Southbridge.

Southbridge authorities said Mr. Lunt passed a note to a teller at Savers Bank on Main Street demanding money on March 3. He did not show a weapon, and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.

On March 10, Mr. Lunt, who had a record of robbing area convenience stores, for which he served jail time, was found hanged to death in a men's bathroom in the radiology department at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, his family said.

When his body was found, authorities said, he had a note on him demanding money without dye packs.

This might suggest Mr. Lunt was contemplating another robbery.

The Southbridge teller had given him a dye pack, which went off, and some of the recovered money was stained, investigators said.

Mr. Lunt's family said there was no excusing his criminal past.

But he had a good heart, and he was struggling to come to terms with his severe condition, they said.

His aunt pulled out her cellphone and showed pictures of tumors sticking out of Mr. Lunt's stomach.

The tumors for which he was receiving chemotherapy treatment had grown five times in size, and he had 12 new ones, she said.

Ms. Gleason said she did not know why Mr. Lunt would have robbed a bank. She said they had a close relationship forged in part because she, too, has cancer.

Her breast cancer is in remission and she has cancer of the saliva gland.

Mr. Lunt knew that she would have given him money, if he'd asked, Ms. Gleason said.

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