News that the Maine State Police have made an arrest in the murder of Tenants Harbor resident Sunshine “Sunny Stewart, 47, on a pond in Union may allow the surrounding community to breathe a sigh of relief, but questions persist in the tragic killing.
According to multiple news outlets, police arrested a 17-year-old male at approximately 10:30 pm on Wednesday, though specific charges remain unknown. Because the suspect is a minor, his name has not been released, but he was staying with family by the pond for the summer, as Stewart had also planned to do.
Stewart’s cause of death, which authorities had withheld until a suspect could be identified, is now known to be strangulation and blunt force trauma, indicating that her killing was intentional.
[RELATED: A Few Details Begin to Trickle Out of Two-Week Old Union Murder Probe]
Earlier this week, it became known that police had begun conducting DNA samples of at least one male staying by Crawford Pond and that the body had been discovered on 100 Acre Island where someone, presumably the killer, had attempted to conceal it.
Stewart left the Mic Mac Cove Campground, where she had been planning to spend the summer, on her paddle-board around 6 pm on July 2, just over two weeks ago, headed out onto the pond by herself. When she had not returned by midnight, a search began and her body was found on the island early the following morning.
The teen suspect was transported to the Long Creek Youth Detention Facility in South Portland Wednesday evening.
This is a developing story and will be updated as additional details become known.
