Justice for Missing & Murdered in Maine: February 2015

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Justice For All

There are 69 reported Cold Case Murder files still opened in Maine alone since 2010. Ayla’s case brings it to 70 unsolved cases and who knows how many others that haven’t been added to the list yet. There are thousands and thousands of cold cases in the United States. Thousands of families with no answers, no closure, no justice.
When I first started blogging about Ayla’s case I was confident that justice would be served and Ayla would not become another statistic, another unsolved case that went cold. As the years went by and no arrests were made, it became apparent that her case

was bound to end up being the blemish on the lead detective’s record, that ugly manilla folder in the bottom of his desk that taunts him each time he reaches for a paper clip. The case classified as Unsolved and Open but no progress had been made for years. The victim’s loved one’s worst nightmare. The killer’s lucky break.
Cold cases do get solved, they don’t necessarily go to the Cold Case Files just to fade into oblivion. Detectives get breaks, fresh eyes sometimes review old cases and see something the original investigators missed. Miracles happen. Many times, the perpetrator is someone on the original suspect list or someone the investigators interviewed. Usually the detectives are pretty certain they know the who, what, when, where and hows but just can’t get the proof they need to convince a jury with certainty. Unfortunately as time goes on, the evidence they need becomes impossible to collect. The killer walks unless someone comes forward who witnessed the event or by some miracle the killer or perpetrator confesses.
There isn’t much we can do to help Ayla now. All evidence has been processed and categorized. All interviews have been conducted. No body has ever been found and the likelihood of that happening now is next to impossible. Maine has too many places to bury secrets that will never be unearthed by merely stumbling upon them. Too many scavengers that will help scatter whatever hasn’t deteriorated over time. We had hoped some fissure in the relationships of those suspected to be involved would fester and one of them would crack but Justin and Courtney’s tumultuous relationship ended with him fathering another child with someone who wasn’t Courtney and a domestic abuse charge and Courtney still remained mum. Elisha, Phoebe, Lance, Derek and Derek’s parents were all scrutinized by the media and bloggers and it still didn’t prompt them to come

forward with anything they knew to save their reputations. For Elisha and Derek, the threat of being implicated in a murder or even helping to cover up a murder and possibly losing their children wasn’t enough for them to come forward with any information they might know so what could possibly get them to talk? The pressure they were once feeling has all but abated. They no longer are constantly looking over their shoulders.
For now while we wait for that break we need to get Justice for Ayla maybe we can help other cases that time has left behind if only to remind people that justice has not yet come for these individuals. Because of Ayla we have the platform and the audience and I think she would want us to use it to help others who still need justice.

Who Killed Kevin Foley and Why?

On Friday June 22nd, 2007 Christine Foley called police to report her husband missing. She claims he left the home around 7pm the night before to go antiquing. When she awoke in the morning, he had not returned home and she grew concerned. At the same time Christine Foley was reporting her husband missing, police were called to a back lot of Woodlawn Cemetery in Westbrook.
A public works employee reported finding a body next to a brown 2003 Mercury Sable at the back of the cemetery near lot 18. When police responded they were able to ascertain that the man, found to be the missing Kevin Foley aged 58, had been shot to death.
When interviewing family, friends and neighbors looking for a possible motive, Foley was described as a devoted husband and a loving father to his three children. He seemingly had no enemies. Many said he was the nicest man, always willing to help a friend in need or the neighborhood children with fundraising. Those who knew him could not make sense of his murder.
Police examined Kevin Foley’s finances looking for clues to help solve his murder as well as an extensive check into his life looking for a hidden life or sullied dark side. Any information they may have found was kept close to the investigation and never released to the public. Foley’s sister Linda Pendexter said her brother did not gamble and was not involved in anything shady. His murder is a complete mystery to her.
Kevin Foley’s brother, James Foley was serving 51 years in a federal prison at the time of Kevin’s murder. He was found guilty of stealing $6 million from UnumProvident Corp, hqdefault

where he worked as the Vice President of sales. No link was found between Kevin and his brother’s dealings.
While I was researching Kevin Foley’s murder, I came across a Kevin Foley who had testified against Gary Reiner when he was on trial for prostitution and money laundering charges stemming from a 2004 raid at the Danish Health Club in Kittery, Maine. Gary Reiner was heavily connected to organized crime in Boston. Sgt. Chris Harriman of the Maine Major Crimes Unit worked the Danish Health Club raid and advised me that Kevin Foley was not involved but is it possible that he was murdered accidentally in retaliation for the other Kevin Foley’s testimony? Hopefully that is an avenue that was not overlooked during the police investigation.
At this point all that is known to the public about Foley’s murder is that is was not random. Foley was definitely targeted but the question remains by whom? Police have declined to say whether it was a suspected robbery or if Foley’s wallet was found on his person however his car was not stolen. Police have not released whether or not fingerprints were found in the car or even if Foley was killed elsewhere and dumped with his car in the (null)

cemetery. It is unknown if Foley was forced to drive to the cemetery or if he was there on his own volition and if so, what motive could he possibly have had for going to the cemetery at night? Westbrook police stated that the cemetery was relatively quiet and not a hotbed of illegal activity.
It is going on 8 years and Kevin Foley’s case is another case that remains unsolved in Maine. His family and friends have not gotten the answers they need for closure. Kevin Foley’s killer remains free to live his life. If you know anything that could help solve this case please contact Maine State Police at 207-626-3811

Rodger Merton Day – Missing 1973

Thursday October. 4 1973 was a sunny brisk day in Porter Maine and the Fryeburg Fair was in full swing of their annual one week run of family festivities.
Fourteen year old Rodger Merton Day left his home in Porter that morning with every intention of going to that fair.
He was never seen or heard from again.
Rodger’s father, Merton Day would look for his son at the Fryeburg Fair every year until his declining years prevented him from doing so.

Word of Mouth

The night before Roger had told his older siblings that he was going to skip school the next day to attend the Fryeburg Fair.
It is assumed that Roger left directly from his home in Porter to head to the fair and that he went alone. No one reported seeing him at Sacopee Valley Middle School that day and no one came forward after his disappearance. fryeburg_fair

His siblings did not think to ask Roger how he was planning on getting to the fair (some 19 miles away). Perhaps it was assumed he planned on thumbing a ride which was not uncommon in those days, or maybe he had made prior arrangements for a ride, but with whom?
In any case, their is no conformation that Roger Day ever made it to the Fryeburg Fair.

Investigation

The family states that Roger’s case was “lost in the shuffle to some degree” and was not picked up on again by the State of Maine until soon after his father’s death in 2010.
Roger Day’s is still not listed in the Maine’s missing persons online database.
A segment of the Maine State Police Major Crime Unit-South’s weekly highlight log of 1/21/13 (since removed) stated: “Detectives Farley and Keaten conducted a further search of a residence in Porter where it is believed ROGER DAY may be buried. DAY has been missing since 1973. They were assisted by an UMF Geology Professor who used a ground penetrating radar unit to survey the basement floor of the residence. The radar unit showed another abnormality in the basement floor. A second dig of the basement will be scheduled in the coming days.”
And the follow up on 2/4/2013; “Nothing further was found in the basement and the investigation continues. Detectives conducted interviews with family members and updated them on the case status.”

Talk of the Town

This is where the case for Roger Day takes an ominous turn. Nobody digs up the floor of a basement without a dam

n good reason. Obviously Roger’s family is no closer to finding out what happened to Roger from this basement search, but it opens up a line of questioning that cannot be ignored.
What led investigators to believe Roger was buried there and who’s basement was this? Was it a friend of the family? Was their anything besides the abnormalities in the basement floor found? What were the abnormalities? It may be that the residents of Porter have the answers that the detectives did not find at this home.
Any information regarding Roger Merton Day contact: Maine State Police Detective Chris Farley 207-657-3030 – christopher.p.farley@maine.gov

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Maine Seeking FBI Input in Kimberly Moreau’s Disappearance

Is new life about to be breathed into an old investigation? The Maine State Police “are attempting to secure assistance from the FBI” in connection with the disappearance and death of teenager Kimberly Moreau 29 years ago, state Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese said in an email last week.
Marchese was responding indirectly to concerns raised by Kim’s sister Karen Dalot. Dalot said her family has been “denied outside help” by the attorney general’s office, including from the FBI, multiple times in the past. Marchese’s understanding of the case history differs from Dalot’s. She said, to her knowledge, investigating authorities haven’t previously nixed FBI assistance.
With so much time elapsed and no answers as to what happened to Kim back in 1986, the family wants the state to take advantage of outside offers of help. In addition to the FBI, Dalot mentioned a former detective working with a cold case squad from another state whose offer of free assistance was rebuffed.
The state views such collaboration differently than partnering with a law enforcement organization, Marchese said. She noted under Title 16, Section 804 of the Maine Revised Statutes, all of the state’s investigative materials are confidential. But it’s not only possible exposure of those materials to public view holding the agency back when it comes to allowing outside assistance in a case by persons who are not active members of a law enforcement agency.
“The integrity of any investigation is contingent on the careful approach to any and all witnesses,” Marchese said, “as well as the handling of any and all evidence.”
If an outside person or organization receives a tip or lead and passes it along to the investigators, “the Maine State Police would welcome that information and would certainly investigate it,” Marchese promised.
As the years pass and frustrations mount, Kim’s family continues its relentless push for answers. Why didn’t Kim come home one Saturday night in the spring of 1986, and who is responsible?

Changed plans

Kimberly Moreau and Mike Staples were high school sweethearts who lived in Jay. Mike gave Kim his class ring, engraved “Mike Staples” and “Mike ’87.” They planned to attend Jay High School’s junior prom together on Saturday, May 11, 1986.
Jay is a western Maine town whose population today is still less than 5,000. Many residents of this predominantly blue collar community work at one of the two paper mills, International Paper’s Androscoggin Mill and Wasau Paper Mill. The Jay website boasts that while Jay’s roots are entwined in the industrial revolution, the feel of the town is rural, small-town, making it an ideal place to live, work, and raise a family. There are exceptions to the idyllic experience, of course, with Kimberly’s disappearance among them.
The day before the prom, Mike and Kim argued, and Kim canceled their prom date. That night and the next day, Kim spent time with various friends. Instead of dressing up and spending Saturday evening dancing with Mike as planned, she donned blue jeans, a white short-sleeved blouse, and white high-top sneakers and headed into town with her friend Rhonda Breton. There they encountered two 25-year-old acquaintances in a white Pontiac Trans Am, Brian Enman and Darren Joudry. About 11 p.m., after Darren left to go to work, the car pulled up in front of Kim’s house on Jewell St. Kim ran inside and told her sister Karen she was going out for a ride and would be back in one hour. She didn’t bring a purse or other belongings with her.
Kim did not return home. Later, Rhonda would tell police Kim was still upset over her fight with Mike and asked to be dropped off a half-mile from her home at 3:45 a.m., saying she’d walk the rest of the way. Brian said he dropped her on Jewel street a half-mile from her house and that’s the last time he saw her. Her dad, Richard Moreau, says that’s not believable; it was cold out, and Kimberly was afraid of the dark. Whatever happened to Kim that night, she was never seen or heard from again.
Jay’s official murder rate sits at zero. Its missing persons list consists of one name: Kimberly Moreau.

Delayed investigation

When Kimberly didn’t come home that Saturday night in 1986, police initially considered

her a runaway as was all too common nationwide at the time. It took four months before Kimberly was classified as missing and endangered and police launched an all-out investigation. Eventually, police would search party places where Enman and Joudry were believed to hang out. They searched abandoned wells and quarries, they searched the rivers and woods, following leads as to what might have happened to the missing teen. One popular hangout, Meadowview, was searched multiple times to no avail. Dalot said Kim didn’t typically hang out at Meadowview but the men she was with that night did.
It took 18 years before investigators searched the Pontiac Trans Am which, by that time, had cycled through three owners. Although her body has never been found, Kimberly is now presumed by officials to have been a victim of foul play. After seven years without a sighting or communication, Kimberly was declared dead in 1993.
With the official investigation suffering from a “too little, too late” malaise, Dick Moreau has conducted his own inquiries, guided by friends with police experience. He has interviewed more than 100 people in his determination to find out what happened to his daughter, the Sun Journal reported in 2004. He is responsible for more than 50,000 posters about Kim’s disappearance being plastered across the state. Dick Moreau has turned up leads, but no answer.

Familiar refrains

Who holds the answer to what happened to Kimberly Moreau? And who else might have some tidbit of information that could set her family free of their 29-year torture of not knowing?
In an interview marking the 25th anniversary of Kimberly’s disappearance in 2011, police mentioned Brian Enman and Darren Joudry by name in asking anyone with information to come forward, anonymously if necessary, to give the Moreau family some peace. Both men still live in the area.
“You know who you are and you know that we have a good idea of who you are,” Maine State Police Lt. Brian McDonough said about the person who can tell them what happened to Kim.
Maine State Police Detective Jeffrey Love expressed a similar sentiment a year later, in speaking with WABI TV. “We know who she was with, we’ve talked to those people, and we feel as though they do have some more information that would help us,” he said.
Police inability to pierce group silence is a common thread among some of Maine’s most notorious unsolved missing persons and homicide cases. In 1995, a baby named Aisha Dickson was beaten to death in her home, a home with three adults in residence.
“All three of those adults are still suspects,” Bangor police Sgt. Ward Gagner said a year later.
When the Aisha Dickson case remained unsolved after 20 years, Bangor police Sgt. Tim Cotton told the Bangor Daily News, “It’s a case where somebody needs to talk to us. It’s very frustrating… to have a grasp of what you believe happened. You can’t always confirm.”
The police posture is much the same in the case of 20-month-old Ayla Reynolds, reported missing from Waterville in 2011 by her father. Maine State Police repeatedly said the three people in the home with Ayla know more than they’ve told police and have not been truthful, but despite the baby’s blood being found in the house, there have been no arrests and few outward signs of progress in the investigation as it drags through its fourth year.

Search for answers

With so much time elapsed, potential sources of information about Kim Moreau have been lost. Rhonda Breton graduated from Jay High School the same year Kimberly disappeared and moved to California two years later. She died in a hit and run in 2009. Any unreported knowledge she may have had went to her grave with her.
Besides Enman, and Joudry, the last living people known to have seen Kim, police have set their sights on others who might have information about Kim’s fate. Calvin Tidswell owned an arcade next to the high school back in 1986. Tidswell knew many of the local teens from the arcade and, Dalot says, was friends with Mike Staples. In a 2004 Sun Journal article, Moreau family friend Barry Romano described Tidswell as “a control freak” who exerted control over teens he befriended and said Kimberly and her friends may have visited with him between the time of her argument with Staples and her disappearance.
Tidswell has an extensive criminal record. He spent 12 years in a penitentiary on drug charges, and has been convicted of involuntary manslaughter and unlawful firearms possession. Kimberly’s father was so convinced Tidswell had knowledge of what happened to his daughter, he set up an interview with him in 2004. Before the interview took place, Tidswell, then on parole after serving his 12-year sentence, was jailed for violating his probation by selling cocaine.
On the day in 2004 when Tidswell was arrested for that probation violation in an undercover sting, he was quoted in a Sun Journal feature on ex-cons saying, “I’d rather starve than hustle drugs again.” The newspaper later acknowledged it had been snowed.
Another potential suspect is serial killer Lewis Lent. Police have said Lent, who was convicted of murder in nearby Massachusetts, is not high on their suspect list, but they haven’t crossed his name off, either. When Lent confessed to killing Sara Anne Wood of New York and James Bernardo of Pittsfield, Mass., he told investigators he attacked an Lewis S. Lent Jr

unidentified child in Maine. He did not provide the child’s identity, he did not specify whether the child was from Maine, nor did he explain whether the attack was fatal. The only child to go missing from Maine during the relevant time period was Kimberly Moreau.
Lent was investigated for possible involvement in murders from New England to Florida, the Boston Globe noted. As for the killings he admitted, he blamed his actions on demons who allegedly inhabit his alter ego.
If you have any information that might shed light on the events of May 11, 1986 that culminated in Kimberly’s disappearance, please contact the Maine State Police at 207-743-8282.

Bill LD-1734

For those who do not know the LD-1734 Bill directs the Attorney General in collaboration with the Commissioner of Public Safety to establish a cold case homicide unit within the Department of the Attorney General to work exclusively on unsolved murders in the State. This “squad” would be staffed by an attorney, two state police detectives and a state crime lab technician.

: Patrick Day

Patrick Day pioneered LD-1734. Patrick is a retired butler who grew up in Millinocket area and attended the Ivor Spencer International School for Butlers. Patrick now has stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer and has stopped all treatments. His time is limited and is dedicated to seeing this bill through.
Naturally I was curious about Patrick Day and wanted to know how he got LD-1734 off the ground. So I asked him for the story in his own words, as no one better than he could tell it:
In April of 2013 I moved back to Maine after being away for many years. I started reconnecting with friends though Facebook and hearing stories of how their lives have been over the years. One person I sent a friend request to was Pam McLain the mother of Joyce McLain, who was murdered in our little town back in 1980. Our town was the Norman Rockwell type town, or so I thought as a young man. No one took the keys out of their car or locked their door and most of the time didn’t turn the car off while running into the store for a gallon of milk on the way home from work. Everyone knew everyone and everyone’s business.

Joyce McLain

Joyce was our hometown celebrity who everyone knew and loved. She could sing, act, play sports and loved to hang out with her friends. She was talented and one of the most gifted students in our school. It was painful to ask Pam about Joyce and her case, I like so many others, had moved away and had not kept up with the case. I honestly thought it would have been solved by now. I mean how could it not be in a town of 2,300, people right? But as Pam shared how the case had not been solved despite her continued effort to search for anyone who could help, I felt her pain, the pain that no one could ever know unless you are the mother of a murdered child.
I went to bed that night and still could not get that feeling out of my mind. The next day I spoke with Pam again to get an idea of what was needed to bring Joyce, Pam and Wendy (who was in my class in school) justice. My first thought was we needed to bring in the news media, we needed Nancy Grace here, she would get to the bottom of this.I started emailing, Dateline, Nancy Grace, 20/20, and just about every show I could find online about unsolved cases. To my dismay, I heard nothing back. I called an old family friend and State Representative Steve Stanley and United States Representative Mike Michaud. I googled Joyce McLain and started to read newspaper articles of other cold cases throughout Maine.
Eventually, I heard about a new show starting up called ”Cold Justice,” and contacted one of the producers from the show. I sent him a bio of Joyce’s case and I was so excited to think this new show was going to come in and save the day. Bringing Cold Justice to this senseless tragedy and offering some sort of relief to our broken town.
In August of 2013 I contacted Steve Stanley, Mike Michaud, and Deputy Attorney Bill Stokes to see if we could get Cold Justice to look at Joyce’s case. I was quickly told the show was never going to be allowed access by the Attorney General’s office. Mr. Stokes and I seemed to be at odds as a sort of war of statements played out in the Bangor Daily

Darien Richardson

News over their refusal to allow what I viewed as a fresh look at Joyce’s case from experts in the field. Disappointed, Pam and I explored other options. Mr. Stanley and I then drafted “Joyce’s Law”.
What this law would do is give parents the ability to have a say in who looks at their loved ones cases after 5 years. I thought for sure this would be a winner and that would take away the Attorney General’s control over all cold cases in Maine. While reading old newspaper articles on the other cold cases in Maine I came across a story about how the State Legislature had considered creating a Cold Case squad in 2001, but a lack of funding killed the effort. Once again, I picked up the phone and called Steve and Mike and asked them how we could get a Cold Case squad bill passed and funded. Steve Stanley and I drafted another bill and sent that off to the Reviser’s office. I asked Mike if he could look into Federal funding. I knew we needed to get support for this squad so I also created on Facebook the “Fund Cold Case Squad Maine” page.
On Facebook, I found many families who were using Social Media to share information

Matt Blanchard

about their loved ones who were missing and murdered. I soon realized this was a far bigger issue than I had ever thought it to be and these people all needed help to give them closure. In November 2013 we had a meeting with Governor Paul LePage and asked for his support. He spoke supportively of both Joyce’s Law and the Cold Case squad bill, but informed us that if the Legislature was going to take up the Cold Case squad bill, they would need to fund it.
Within days of submitting Joyce’s Law we learned that we were never going to get it passed without changing the Maine Constitution as It would remove the Attorney General’s’ office exclusive responsibility over homicide cases and violate portions of existing state law that prohibits the dissemination of open or ongoing state police investigations. Everyone was heartbroken, I am sure no one more then Pam McLain. Bill Stokes had made a comment in a Bangor Daily Newspaper story by Nick Sambides Jr. and mentioned that we would be better served if we had a cold case squad in Maine. I called Mr. Stokes and we talked about a squad and how it would work and what it would need. Bill LD-1734 fit everything Mr. Stokes had said and would give those families what they so desperately wanted a fresh set of eyes on their loved ones case.
On February 20th, 2014 we had our first hearing on LD-1734 before the Judiciary Committee. Prior to the hearing, Steve Stanley and I had met with Gov. LePage’s staff to secure support for the bill. Both the Governor and the Attorney General’s office sent representatives to testify in favor of establishing a Cold Case squad. The Committee passed the bill and sent it to the Appropriations Committee for funding.

Alice Ann Hawkes

In April 2014 we had a lot going on. Chapter Leader of the Maine Parents of Murdered Children Arthur Jette, has been so supportive of us and helped to get our story on the George Hale and Ric Tyler radio show. We heard from Rep. Mike Michaud that there might be some federal funds for the Cold Case squad in Maine. All the members of the Committee voted to allow the application for the Federal funds to move forward and not use State funds. At the time that seemed like a good idea, but in the end it is what stopped the Committee from funding LD-1734. In April 2014 Governor Paul LePage signed bill LD-1734 into Law unfunded. This was the second time in Maine a bill for a Cold Case Squad was unfunded.
After the shock of seeing everyone’s hard work rejected by the Legislature I took to Facebook and together with supporters we made a plan to use the upcoming election to keep attention on the squad and to challenge every candidate running for office to come out and support the funding of a cold case squad. Mike Michaud was the only candidate to come out and commit to putting funding for the squad in his first budget. In 2015 we start a new Legislative Session and Rep. Karl Ward and Rep. Steven Stanley have summited a new funding bill to give funding to the cold case squad.
I created a website http://www.coldcasesquadme.com/ in 2014 and discovered that the State’s cold case site was not correct and many other cases were not listed as they

: Maine’s Cold Case Names

should be. There wasn’t a detailed list anywhere that I could find so I tried to create one so that families could go and see other cases, get updates and find the resources when they needed them. The Maine State Police needs to update their website with information on all the missing and murdered in Maine. Instead they only have 13 missing cases and 68 murder cases. When in fact there are 28 missing and 120 murder victims. This is just what I have been able to find. I am sure there are many cases with no online documentation.

The Maine State Police and the Attorney General’s office are not infallible. Mr. Stokes declined Pam’s request to exhume her daughter’s body for a second autopsy, suggesting that nothing could be achieved by it. Yet the autopsy performed by renowned forensic experts Dr. Michael Baden and Dr. Henry Lee yielded “promising DNA and forensic evidence” and “Physical evidence”.
Evidence, the family was told, that would help to prove and convict the person responsible for the death of Joyce McLain.
We need a funded cold case squad in Maine to offer new perspectives into these cold case files instead of leaving Pam and other families of missing loved ones out in the cold.
There was a quote I happened upon at the start of this process and it has been a guiding force with me since: “They want you to keep your mouth shut. If you keep quiet, they’ll get away with murder.” ~ Kyle Gregory Quinn

The National Institute of Justice currently defines a cold case as “any case whose probative investigative leads have been exhausted.” I’m told that the average overall is 2 years for an absolute declaration of a “Cold Case.” As early as November 22, 2014 Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, has said that Ayla Reynolds’ investigation remains “active and ongoing.” However, even the press has begun to surmise that her case is now a cold case.

Patrick Day, Governor LePage, Mr. Stokes, Mr. Stanley, Mr. Michaud, and Mr. Ward all agree that a task force devoted to cold case files is needed. It is destined to get murderers off the street and in jail where they belong as it has with other states. By solving cases, it will help families of murder victims find closure for their personal tragedies.
Funding for the cold case squad team will be before the legislature early this year (hearing date to be announced soon). Patrick would like your help in getting LD-1734 funded. He needs your signatures to submit to the Legislative Committee in Augusta.
Please sign and share now: https://www.change.org/p/permanently-fund-a-cold-case-squad-in-maine

You can find many details on victims and their cases on Patrick’s website http://www.coldcasesquadme.com/ or on his https://www.facebook.com/coldcasesquadme page.