Park incident prompts probe N.C. woman hurt at Quoddy Head

LUBEC – An incident at West Quoddy Head State Park that critically injured a North Carolina woman is under investigation by the Washington County Sheriff’s Department and a detective from the Maine State Police.

Sheriff Joseph Tibbetts said Thursday that ambulance attendants found Kimberly Stanford, 41, at the bottom of a 30- to 50-foot ledge after her husband, Robert Stanford, went to U.S. Customs in Lubec about 12:20 a.m. Thursday seeking help for his wife.

Stanford told the customs agent he had found his wife after she apparently had fallen from the ledge and appeared to have broken her hip or pelvis.

Stanford, who was “banged up,” according to the sheriff, accompanied his wife in the ambulance to Down East Community Hospital, the sheriff said.

Tibbetts said Kimberly Stanford was flown to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor on Thursday morning and remained in critical condition later Thursday.

The sheriff said Robert Stanford told the Lubec police chief, who assisted investigating agencies at the scene, that he had been reading on the beach while his wife went for a walk.

Stanford said he became alarmed when she hadn’t returned by sunset and went looking for her. But the sheriff said a park ranger reported he had talked to a man in a vehicle with a North Carolina license plate when he locked the park gate at dark.

Tibbetts said the ranger told a sheriff’s deputy he had asked the man if he needed help but was told by the man he was waiting for a friend.

The sheriff said he called the criminal investigation division of the Maine State Police on Thursday afternoon because of the seriousness of the woman’s injuries and the conflicting information on what had occurred.

Sgt. Dennis Appleton, the CID supervisor for Washington County, said Detective Brian Smith and Trooper Micah Perkins of CID’s evidence response team are assisting the sheriff’s department in evaluating the potential evidence at the scene. Appleton said it is unclear at this point whether the fall was accidental. Police were still at the scene Thursday evening trying to make that determination.