Wednesday was a grim, two-week mark since the killing of Sunshine “Sunny” Stewart, 47, a Tenants Harbor resident who went paddle-boarding on Union’s Crawford Pond on June 2 but never returned to the campground at which she intended to spend the summer. While authorities have said little about their investigation, small details have come to light in recent days about Stewart’s mysterious homicide.
According to the Midcoast Villager’s Stephen Betts, Stewart’s body was discovered on the southeast part of 100 Acre Island, which occupies much of the center of the pond. Separately, it has been established that her body did not simply wash up on the shore, but rather was pulled to the location where it was found and some attempt was made to conceal it. Her paddleboard was found alongside it, Betts’ report indicates.
That area of the island faces part of the pond’s shore least populated by houses or summer camps. The Maine Wire earlier reported that access to or exit from the pond and now crime scene could be obtained perhaps least conspicuously via the Miller Road that connects Wotton’s Mill Road and Route 17 over private property belonging to an out-of-state family who gifted 100 Acre Island to the George’s River Land Trust.
Another new fact about the investigation reported by Betts is that police took a DNA sample from a man on June 14 and have been asking for men around the pond top to voluntarily submit similar samples. From this, it can be inferred that investigators have sufficient forensic evidence from the crime scene to identify a match and/or exclude persons of interest from their probe.
Meanwhile, two of Stewart’s friends, Rachel Blumenberg and Bethany Parmley, spoke with WMTW-8 television on Wednesday about Sunny’s final days. Blumenberg had been staying at Stewart’s Tenants Harbor home and said she discovered the house dark and vacant at 9 pm on June 2, which surprised her.
“If this is what they have to do so they can find who did this, then I’m willing to be frustrated and worried if it means the outcome is that we find out who did this,” Parmley told WMTW-8, speaking to her attitude about the authorities’ tight-lipped handling of the investigation thus far.
Betts, who has covered the midcoast area as a reporter for more than 40 years, said in a recent interview with a true crime program that this marks the longest period without an arrest he has known to be associated with a local homicide.
The prospect that Stewart’s killer remains at large has unsettled the community as many women have curtailed certain activities where they could potentially be exposed to violence from a stranger.
“I myself have heard many slightly varying accounts from very close, and some not so close, sources about the details of this murder and based on that info I would ask that until this is resolved you do exactly what they ask.. stay vigilant. Lock your doors, don’t be alone in remote areas and for me (and I hope you!) please practice your 2nd amendment rights,” state Rep. Katrina Smith (R-Palermo) wrote on Facebook, regarding the last public statement by the Maine Department of Public Safety urging residents to remain vigilant and aware of their surroundings.
On their Facebook page, the Maine State Police recently posted a link to the 69 unsolved homicides in their files some might call “cold cases.” In the last year alone, evidence has come forward leading to the arrest of perpetrators of murders committed years, if not decades ago. When it comes to Sunny Stewart, friends, family and the community at large are hoping that her case does not join that file.
