November 14, 2024
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Police arrest man in weird call case Woman’s voice created confusion

ALLAGASH – Strange twists occur in the investigation of criminal cases, and the arrest of a former Wisconsin man at Allagash on Thursday produced one of those strange occurrences.

John Parker, 37, a resident of Allagash for the last six or seven months, was arrested Thursday by Maine State Trooper Corey Hafford as the person who made the 911 emergency call from an Allagash residence last month.

For more than a month police were looking for a woman who led police to believe her life was in danger Feb. 22. The thought-to-be female voice launched an investigation that led to the arrest of Collen Nadeau on various drug and firearm charges.

“I think he is going to kill me. Could you please get over here. Oh my God, Collen, don’t,” the female voice said before the emergency line went dead.

Police found the telephone line to the home had been cut when they arrived at the scene. The severed telephone line was outside the home.

A red substance, which police believe may not be blood, was found on the porch of the home and on the snow off the porch.

Parker, who was being held in the Aroostook County Jail Sunday, has been charged with burglary, filing a false police report and criminal mischief.

While Hafford did not know the particulars of Parker’s past, he said there is an outstanding full extradition warrant for Parker from the state of Wisconsin.

Neale Adams, Aroostook County district attorney, said the warrant for Parker is a parole-probation violation. He did not know what the original charge was against Parker, but he was found guilty of some charge and then violated conditions of release.

“It’s bizarre,” Adams said Sunday. “It’s hard to understand what constitutes the full truth in the case.”

“We arrested a man for making the 911 call from Collen Nadeau’s,” Hafford said Sunday. “He had disguised his voice and passed himself off as a woman.

“When we interviewed him he also used a false name, John Lesieur,” Hafford said. “He was using a false name because of the warrant against him in Wisconsin, fearing extradition.”

Parker has been living at Riverview Apartments in Allagash. He is believed to have moved to Allagash six or seven months ago. Hafford said Parker has been dating Caroline Nadeau, Nadeau’s estranged wife.

“We don’t yet know the reasoning behind the call,” Hafford said. “There are several possibilities.

“It’s just been a strange case all around,” Hafford said. “The majority of the time, for the past month, we have been looking for a woman.”

Hafford said there were no problems during the arrest Thursday.

The Feb. 22 call was made from the 141 Inn Road home of Collen Nadeau. The call launched a search for a female who told emergency personnel that she feared for her life before the line went dead.

There was no woman at the house when police arrived there.

A week later state police spokesman Stephen McCausland said police had identified the mystery caller, but did not know why the woman called. The woman police found denied making the call.

Police, at the time, would not reveal her identity, but McCausland said there was “little doubt as to whom the caller was.”

Collen Nadeau, 52, was arrested on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, cultivation of marijuana and possession of cocaine.

Nadeau, who has a long criminal record, has not cooperated with police and denied knowledge of a woman being at his home Tuesday night.

McCausland had said that Nadeau was in possession of a “significant amount of cocaine,” fewer than 10 plants of marijuana, and a rifle.

Nadeau was a logger until he was injured in the woods in 1987 and again in 1988.

Nadeau was arraigned in District Court in Houlton, remanded to the jail and later posted the $15,000 surety or $2,000 cash bail.

At the time when police said they had identified the woman kwho made the call, they would not verify the information, but there was a theory that the call may have been made to set up the arrest of Nadeau.

“We’re looking at all possibilities,” an investigator said.

Officers who were at Nadeau’s home Feb. 22 called the scene suspicious.

Collen and Caroline Nadeau, his wife, filed for divorce in 2004. The petition is pending in 1st District Court in Fort Kent.


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