WINSTED — Two separate violent incidents near Highland Lake in the past month resulted in hospitalizations, one significant enough to require a LifeStar helicopter and recovery in a rehabilitation facility.Winchester Police Chief Robert Scannell confirmed this week that the department is investigating an incident that took place some time between Friday night, Oct. 28, and early Saturday, Oct. 29, in which a local resident, Brandon Gurtowsky, 27, was brutally assaulted, somewhere near Resha Beach. Gurtowsky suffered traumatic head injuries, facial fractures and shattered hands in the attack, and was reportedly dropped off at Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington by friends after the incident. Gurtowsky traveled by LifeStar helicopter to Hartford Hospital, where he spent a week in an induced coma with cerebral hemorrhaging.It wasn’t until noon on Saturday, Oct. 29, that the Winchester Police Department received a call from Torrington police indicating that the assault may have happened in Winsted.“We’re pretty sure it happened near the Resha Beach parking lot, however we’re no closer to an arrest,” Scannell said Tuesday. “But there has been very limited cooperation from the witnesses.”Gurtowsky was hospitalized at Hartford Hospital and is now recovering from severe facial fractures, a broken jaw and broken hands, according to his girlfriend, Amy Root. Root said in an interview Tuesday that Gurtowsky and two friends were traveling together in a friend’s car Oct. 28 and that she doesn’t know who attacked Gurtowsky.“For some reason his friends aren’t saying anything,” Root said. “Someone might have been trying to blame him for something that was stolen.”Root acknowledged that Gurtowsky has had some trouble in the past. “He’s from Winsted and he used to be a troublemaker,” she said. “The cops don’t really like him because when he was younger he was in a lot of trouble, but he’s grown up.”Chief Scannell said the department does not yet have suspects in the case and that the timing of the call, along with uncooperative witnesses, has made for a difficult investigation.“We were alerted at noon the following day by Torrington police, who told us the victim had been dropped at Charlotte at 2 a.m. [on Oct. 29],” he said. “They started an investigation and they determined the incident might have happened up here. They got in touch with us, but needless to say, some of the tracks were cold.”Root said she is concerned that Gurtosky’s friends have been unwilling to explain what happened. “Everyone is saying something different, and his friends won’t speak up,” she said. “They’re saying they don’t remember. I was home sleeping, and I got a phone call that he was being LifeStared to Hartford. I think someone wanted to kill him.”Gurtowsky remains in a rehabilitation facility in Hartford with his jaw wired shut and a tracheotomy in place. Root said he is expected to remain in rehabilitation for at least two weeks.In a separate case, Scannell said another fight occurred Oct. 14 near Highland Lake, in which an unidentified 17-year-old male resident of the Highland Lake area received numerous lacerations requiring hospitalization. “It appears that these are people who know each other,” the chief said regarding the victim and the suspects. The exact nature of the fight is not known, the chief said, but the department does expect to make arrests in the case. “We have identified suspects,” he said.Scannell said Highland Lake residents are not in danger and that the two violent incidents are coincidental and appear to involve people who know each other. He asked anyone with information about either incident to contact the Winchester Police Department at 860-379-2721.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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