Case of homeless man’s death ‘a priority,’ says police chief

BANGOR – Police investigators have some leads and a substantial amount of evidence, but more than seven weeks after Trevor Sprague’s badly burned body was found underneath a Bangor bridge he sometimes called home, one thing they don’t have is a suspect in custody.

“The investigation still remains a priority for us,” Bangor Police Chief Don Winslow said Thursday.

In talking about the case, Winslow has to walk a tightrope, balancing the need for secrecy in an ongoing investigation with the need as the head of the city’s law enforcement agency to inform and protect the public.

Winslow and investigators, for example, won’t discuss the cause of death of Sprague, 34, a transient from Lubec who sometimes would stay with family and sometimes in local shelters and sometimes on the streets.

When the test results came back from a California laboratory two weeks ago – results that authorities were waiting for as part of the cause-of-death determination – investigators would reveal only that the death was a homicide. They remain tight-lipped about other details of Sprague’s death.

At the same time, as he sat Thursday in his police station office, Winslow was cognizant that there are questions and concerns in the community.

Since Sprague’s body was found on March 7, there has been speculation about whether he died in a dispute with another homeless person, whether he was a victim of violence against the homeless, or because he was gay.

Sprague’s body was discovered in the late afternoon of March 7 by motorists passing on the Harlow Street bridge who saw smoke. Firefighters and police investigating the source of the smoke looked under the bridge and discovered flames shooting 2 feet high over a man’s body.

Sprague’s body was so badly burned that authorities had to use DNA to positively identify him.

Sprague suffered from substance abuse and mental health problems, and court records showed he had been convicted last year of assault and unlawful sexual contact.

He was convicted in October 2005 of unlawful sexual contact after he improperly touched a teenage boy who was sitting in a park near the Bangor Public Library. He also was convicted in July 2001 on two counts of indecent conduct, according to Mike Roberts, deputy district attorney in Penobscot County.

Shawn Yardley, director of Bangor’s Health and Welfare Department, works with homelessness and social services issues on a local, regional and statewide level and said Sprague’s death is still reverberating across the board.

“I think that people continue to be unsettled by this,” Yardley said Thursday. While some of the rawness of the first days after Sprague’s body was discovered burning underneath the Harlow Street bridge has dissipated, there are still strong feelings and uncertainty among those who are vulnerable and those who care for them, Yardley said.

“We’re all concerned that whoever’s responsible is still out there,” he said.

Winslow said he is aware of those concerns and provided what assurances he could under the constraints of an ongoing investigation.

“We have no reason to believe that this was a random act of violence and the investigation is continuing,” he said.

“Community members shouldn’t believe that they are at risk of falling prey to the hands of whoever is responsible,” he said.

Yardley said he understood and appreciated the need for the police to work carefully and thoroughly even when there is pressure to resolve the case quickly.

“I have confidence that the police are working hard at resolving the situation and bringing it to its conclusion,” he said.

But having so little information out there makes it harder to protect those in the homeless community, the city official said.

“Without knowing who, how do you tell people to stay safe?” he asked.