The Maine State Police arrested a New Hampshire man on Thursday in connection with the decades-old murder of Maxine Bitomski, 73, of Kittery.
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At approximately 6:13 a.m., the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit and the Portsmouth, NH, Police Department arrested Daniel Jolly, 59, of Portsmouth, at his home on a warrant charging him with murder for the 1993 killing of Bitomski.
He was transported to the Rockingham, NH County Jail, where he will remain pending extradition proceedings.
On January 16, 1993, officers from the Kittery Police Department responded at approximately 3:24 p.m. to 3 Colonial Road after Bitomski’s grandson found her dead in the home where she lived by herself.
Her granddaughter, Candus Cavaretta, was the last person to see Bitomski alive.
Police immediately responded and began investigating the circumstances surrounding her death.
The next day, an autopsy conducted by the Office of the Maine State Medical Examiner in Augusta determined that the manner of death was a homicide. Police have not released the exact cause of death “pending the unsealing of court documents.”
The death sparked a thirty-year investigation that eventually led police to Jolly.
Jolly allegedly knew Bitomski through his work at Medical Market, a medical supply company in Portsmouth that provided Bitomski with oxygen equipment and services prior to her death.
Starting in 2021, detectives with the Maine State Police re-examined the evidence in the case and used advanced DNA testing.
That testing ultimately led to Jolly’s arrest.
Police have not provided any information on a possible motive behind the murder.
The Maine Wire reached out by phone to the Rockingham County Jail and requested a mugshot. The officer who spoke with The Maine Wire said that Jolly had not yet been booked as of 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, but that he will provide the mugshot as soon as it becomes available. This story will be updated to include Jolly’s booking photo.
