Intoxicated teens found in mired car 4 suffered hypothermia, face alcohol charges

MAXFIELD – A warden who spotted a car stuck in the snow on an unpaved road shortly before noon Monday found four apparently intoxicated teenagers inside, including one who was taken to a hospital for hypothermia.

Warden Ronald Dunham said he stumbled upon the Ford Tempo sedan at 11:45 a.m. while he was making his daily rounds on the North Howland Road, a side road in Maxfield, just west of Howland in Penobscot County.

“The car was somewhat stuck in the snowbank, but they could have pushed it out if they weren’t so intoxicated,” Dunham said.

He found two 18-year-old males and two 15-year-old females inside the car, which he said was littered with empty beer cans, half-filled liquor bottles and vomit.

“The vehicle was a mess,” Dunham said.

Brandon Reed of Enfield was admitted Monday afternoon to Penobscot Valley Hospital in Lincoln and was treated for intoxication and hypothermia. The hospital declined to comment on his condition, but warden Sgt. Douglas Tibbetts, who assisted Dunham at the scene, said Reed “was in bad shape.”

“These teenagers are quite fortunate that they were found when they were. They could have died,” Tibbetts said.

All four suffered minor hypothermia, Tibbetts said, as temperatures hovered around zero during the overnight hours. Only Reed, however, was hospitalized.

Reed and John Southards of West Enfield each were charged with possession of alcohol by a minor and furnishing alcohol to a minor. The girls were charged with possession of alcohol by a minor. Their names were not released because of their ages. Dunham said both are from the Lincoln area.

Dunham said he found a small amount of marijuana in Southards’ possession, and he was charged with possession of a usable amount of marijuana.

The group apparently started out Sunday night in the Lincoln area, where Southards admitted to buying alcohol at two locations, Dunham said. They then drove to the remote area of Maxfield “just to get out of sight basically,” Dunham said.

The car, which belonged to Reed, was found resting against a snowbank. The muffler was broken, which could have been disastrous, Dunham said, had the engine been running all night as exhaust fumes could have filled the car’s interior.

When Dunham found the vehicle, Southards was in the front passenger seat and one of the females was in the driver’s seat. Reed and the other girl were in the back seat. None of the teens was forthcoming about what had happened.

“They weren’t sure how long they had been there, and they didn’t seem to know why they were there,” Sgt. Tibbetts said. He speculated they had been there at least 10 hours.

Dunham said Reed was “the worst of the lot” and had to be carried into the emergency room at Penobscot Valley Hospital.

The Maine Warden Service was still investigating the incident, Dunham said, and will work on the case in conjunction with Maine State Police detectives.