Midcoast Mainers breathed a collective sigh of relief on Thursday to learn that Sunny Stewart’s killer was in custody, but as the young man who has been charged with murder denied responsibility in a court hearing in Rockland Friday morning, a troubling pattern re-emerged:
Too many people are too hesitant to talk about what happened on Crawford Pond earlier this month.
Why are folks so tight-lipped up here in Maine, outsiders have been asking as news of Sunny’s killing has gone national. Is it because we’re taciturn Mainers, or we don’t talk about about our neighbors?
Yes, there was a tactical purpose in the state police decision to release few if any details about Stewart’s killing, just as those with knowledge of the events feared talking to reporters could hurt the prosecution of the killer that will now begin. That makes sense.
But did the seeming gag-order go too far, one wonders.
Earlier today The Maine Wire reached out to a contact of the alleged killer who had written to him last week on a public forum asking how he was doing. When questioned, that individual was wary, perhaps with reason, and eventually asked “has ‘it’ been released?”
In other words, they likely knew that Deven Young, 17, is the suspected killer but for reasons known best to them, kept quiet.
Others whom The Maine Wire contacted over the past two weeks displayed a stand-offishness ranging from cold to outright hostile. A number of these individuals probably knew more than they were willing to say, and the media has a different investigative purpose than the police. But the public interest in knowing what is happening is not insignificant either.
For two weeks, the suspected killer was not in custody but presumably at large. He was arrested in Union, was he there by Crawford Pond throughout this whole period? If so, were other women really safe?
Why were people, like the family camping on 100 Acre Island presumably at the same time Sunny was murdered, told soon afterwards there was no threat and they could continue camping there?
We will not know all the operational details of this investigation for some time, and perhaps the suspect was being closely watched in the days leading up to his apprehension. We certainly hope so. But in the wake of a brutal killing, there is nothing wrong with asking questions.
Even if those questions defy easy answers. How could a teenager come to kill a grown woman who had likely done him no wrong, how could someone so young be so broken?
As the prosecution proceeds, maybe now the healing can begin. It will be hardest for Sunny’s family and friends, who lost a bright light for no good reason.
The community can now comfort them without the fear that comes from silence and the sense one ought not be saying certain things. Hopefully the town of Union can also heal now, as many were rightfully afraid for themselves and their loved ones in the period since Independence Day.
But there will also be a time for tough questions, so many of which were deferred. Who knew that the alleged killer posed a threat to others – before Sunny’s death and afterwards? Did a culture of looking the other way lead to a less safe environment? These are not comfortable questions.
But they can’t be put off forever either.
