PORTLAND – A wrongful death lawsuit brought by the parents of a teen-ager found dead on a Scarborough road has been put on hold because the defendants filed for bankruptcy protection.

Earl B. Sanborn Jr. and Muriel Sanborn sought protection under Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on April 6, just days before they were to be deposed in the civil suit filed on behalf of Robert Ouellette of Saco.

Bankruptcy filings automatically halt pending lawsuits.

“This may take some time,” said David Beneman, the lawyer for Robert Ouellette. “It’s one more legal setback.”

Ouellette filed the wrongful death lawsuit against the Sanborns Feb. 5 in York County Superior Court. The lawsuit claims the Sanborns were negligent in not telling anyone that 15-year-old Ashley spent the last night of her life at their home.

A motorist found the girl lying in the middle of Pine Point Road in Scarborough Feb. 10, 1999. She had been strangled. The last place police can place her alive is the Sanborn residence at 50 Mast Road in Saco.

“The Ouellette family feels the death of our daughter happened at that house,” Robert Ouellette said the day the lawsuit was filed.

The Sanborns’ attorney acknowledged the filing could be a way to avoid a deposition in the Ouellette case, but said he expected the Sanborns would eventually be deposed, anyway.

“The filing in this case was in the works” before the Ouellette civil case was started, lawyer Edward Daigle said.

Court documents filed by the Sanborns list total assets of $119,369 and debts of $149,435. The paperwork says the Sanborns believe that after legal expenses are paid and exempt property is excluded “there will be no funds available for distribution to unsecured creditors,” including Robert Ouellette.