SWAMPSCOTT - When Joann Lynch saw the helicopter flying over the coast Wednesday while celebrating the Fourth of July, she figured a boat capsized or there was someone lost at sea.

She soon learned the helicopter was airlifting a man who police say broke into her home on Banks Road and fell 60 feet over a cliff while running away.

"(Police) said he isn't going to make it, which is very sad," Lynch said. "I feel bad. He's a young man and evidently made a bad choice. His family is losing someone, and that's more important."

Police released little new information about the break-in Wednesday except the man's name and that he remains hospitalized at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Due to federal privacy laws, hospital staff would not release the man's condition.

Alex Bonah, 34, has a last known address in Revere but is homeless, according to recent court documents.

Bonah was indicted by a grand jury in January on several felony charges in connection with a string of house break-ins in Andover last year. He was charged with three counts of breaking and entering in the daytime and two counts of larceny from a building and released on $3,000 cash bail three weeks after his arraignment.

A trial is scheduled for Sept. 18. His attorney listed in court documents, James Connell, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Bonah was arrested in Andover Nov. 27 following a foot chase by police when a woman in that town came home to find a man running from her property.

What happened in Andover is similar to what police and Lynch say happened Wednesday in Swampscott.

A neighbor on her deck spotted a man near the Lynches' home, Lynch said. The neighbor wasn't sure if it was one of the Lynches' teenage grandsons, but then she heard glass breaking and saw something in the bedroom window, Lynch said.

"She said to her husband, 'Call the police right away.' The cruisers came in my driveway and ... and he ran out," Lynch said.

Lynch said the fleeing man was jumping over 6-foot-high stockade fences and ran into her neighbor's yard.

But then, according to police, Bonah eventually fell off a cliff behind Swampscott Treatment and Trauma Center on Paradise Road and suffered "severe head trauma."

Lynch alleged that Bonah had made off with some jewelry and cash; the couple's bedroom was ransacked.

Lynch and her husband, Richard, are the parents of WCVB sports anchorman Mike Lynch, who grew up at the home on Banks Road.

Lynch said her husband retrieved the stolen items yesterday from police. She said that's when he learned the suspect's prognosis was dire.

The break-in and the events that followed made for an unforgettable Fourth of July, but Joann Lynch said knowing that a stranger was in her home, going through her drawers and personal belongings made for some uneasiness last night.

"It was scary," she said, "even when I went to bed last night. It's not a nice feeling to know my privacy has been violated and someone's been through my things."

She credited Swampscott police - and her neighbor - but still wonders what drove a man to attempt a daring daytime break-in and risk his life for jewelry and cash.

"I'm amazed (Bonah) just didn't care," she said.

Staff writers Julie Manganis and Matthew K. Roy contributed to this report.