PORTLAND — Maine’s highest court has upheld the dismissal of a wrongful death claim against the Ramada Inn in Lewiston by the family of a New Hampshire woman who was murdered in 1995 while attending a business meeting at the hotel.

The Supreme Judicial Court agreed that there was insufficient evidence to support a lawsuit by the estate of Rachelle Anne Williams against the Ramada’s owner, Adamar Associates, alleging that it failed in its duty to protect its guest from harm.

The body of Williams, 33, of Gorham, N.H., was found Nov. 6, 1995, in a field next to the Ramada. Authorities said she had been raped and strangled.

Williams was last seen in the hotel lounge the night before, socializing with a group of co-workers from Pizza Hut who said she had left to go to the restroom and never returned.

A former Turner farmhand, Lloyd Franklin Millett, pleaded guilty to murdering Williams and another woman, Terrie Lizotte, 39, of Canton, whose body was found in a closet in Millett’s mobile home that same weekend. He was given consecutive prison sentences of life and 70 years.

The lawsuit against the hotel’s owner, filed in 1997 in Androscoggin County Superior Court, sought unspecified damages for the estate of Williams, a mother of four.

In rejecting the claim, the high court noted that an innkeeper can be held liable for foreseeable injuries to guests only when the innkeeper’s conduct is found to be the proximate cause of the injuries.

In Williams’ case, such evidence was not present, the justices agreed in their ruling Friday.

“Although it would not be unreasonable to assume that Millett abducted Williams from the Ramada’s premises, the evidence does not reveal whether Williams voluntarily left the Ramada property with Millett or whether he abducted her.