’01 homicide rate state’s 3rd-lowest 3 killings still unsolved, police say

PORTLAND – Maine followed up on the lowest level of homicides ever recorded in the state with another safe year in 2001, which was the third-best year since the state began keeping records.

The state ended the year with 19 homicides, which falls short of the previous year’s record low of 11 killings in Maine, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Public Safety Department. There were 16 homicides in 1993, the second-lowest year on record; 1997 also had 19 homicides.

The two years of low numbers of homicides compare to 25 homicides in 1999 and 26 the year before that.

Overall, the troubling trend of most homicides falling into the domestic category continued in 2001, McCausland said. In recent years, more than 50 percent of homicides fell into that category.

“In the largest number of homicide cases in Maine, the victim knows the assailant and in most cases, loves or loved the assailant,” he said.

One of the deaths, that of foster child Logan Marr last January, set into motion a push for changes within the Department of Human Services, which came under sharp criticism after the 5-year-old’s death.

Marr died after being bound in a high chair with duct tape covering her mouth. Her foster mother has pleaded innocent to murder.

Two committees are conducting investigations into the state’s child protective system and will report their findings to the Maine Legislature.

Three homicide cases remain open. Helen Caron was killed in an arson at her Lewiston apartment building. Amy St. Laurent of South Berwick disappeared after a night out in Portland. Gregory Rowe of Lewiston was found beaten to death inside his apartment.

The killing of St. Laurent, who disappeared after a night out in Portland and was found in a shallow grave in Scarborough, also captured a great deal of media attention. Police have not yet made an arrest in that case or in the other two open cases.

The only multiple homicide of the year was the killings of Christina Gray, 24, and her sister Vicki Morgan, 19, in Patten by Gray’s husband, Harold Gray, 68, who later killed himself.

Perhaps the oddest fact buried in the data on the 2001 homicides is that two brothers allegedly used the same murder weapon: a hammer.

Smoky Heath Jr. was charged with killing a man with a hammer in a dispute over a truck in March in Benton, and his brother, Carl Heath, was charged with fatally beating a taxi driver with a hammer in October, McCausland said.

The worst year for homicides was in 1989, when there were 40 killings. Homicide records in Maine have been kept since 1971.

The number of fire deaths in 2001 was 18, which is one above last year’s level, McCausland said. The number of deaths was lower than the average annual fire death rate of 20 in the 1990s and 32 in the 1980s.

Fire Marshal John Dean reported that the biggest factors in fire deaths were cigarettes and smoke detectors that did not work.

Overall, the trend toward fewer fire deaths because of smoke detectors, improved building codes and fire safety programs has been encouraging for Dean and other fire officials, McCausland said.

The worst year for fire deaths was 70 in 1967; the state’s fire records go back to 1950, McCausland said.

The number of deaths on Maine highways grew to 190 in 2001, compared to 169 the previous year, McCausland said. The highest number of highway deaths was 276 in 1970 and the lowest in modern times was 166 in 1982.

The worst accident of the year was on Nov. 10, when five young men died in a single-car crash in Casco, McCausland said. The driver was legally drunk and speeding at 90 mph when his Volkswagen Golf skidded off the highway, crashed into a tree and split into two piece, police said.

Overall, the number of highway deaths linked to alcohol has continued to go down in Maine thanks to tougher enforcement.

The percentage of fatal accidents involving alcohol in Maine has dropped from 60 percent in 1980 and 1981 to 27 percent in 2000, the most current data available, McCausland said.

“You’ve seen a complete reversal in attitude. It’s no longer socially acceptable to drink and drive,” he said.