Calais news reporter keeps cold case alive

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ROBBINSTON – For more than 20 years, Heather Henry has wanted to know what happened to Linda Maxwell.

In 1984, Maxwell’s nude body washed ashore at the boat landing in Robbinston. She was just 18 years old.

Henry was one of the last people to see Maxwell alive.

That was on Aug. 23, 1984. Three days later Maxwell’s body washed ashore. An autopsy report later listed the cause of death as drowning. It also said there were no visual wounds or bruises on her body. But from the beginning the Maine State Police treated Maxwell’s death as suspicious. Her clothes were never found. There were lots of leads, but even more dead ends. The police eventually added her name to their Unsolved Homicides List.

But back in 1984, Maxwell and Henry were just teenagers hanging out with their friends at The Mart parking lot on North Street, now Johnson’s True Value Hardware and Marden’s Surplus and Salvage stores.

“I saw her that night” when she disappeared, Henry said recently. Although the two women were not friends, they knew each other. But then, that’s no surprise because they lived in a small town.

Maxwell was the daughter of Cleveland and Nancy Maxwell. She was a member of the Woodland Baptist Church. She had two brothers, Frank and Wayne Maxwell.

That summer night Maxwell left the parking lot with friends; Henry stayed behind with her friends.

“When her body washed ashore, my mother [Ethel] and I went down to the rock quarry. Rumor was that she’d been at the rock quarry that night. I don’t know if that was true or not. My mother and I spent the entire day searching around the rock quarry trying to find her clothes or something. But we found nothing,” she said quietly.

In 1991, Henry started to work as a reporter for a local weekly newspaper, the Calais Advertiser.

She talked with her publisher, Ferguson Calder, about Maxwell’s death. He told her to write a story about the unsolved case.

“I jumped on it because I knew her and I felt for her parents. All these years having a child and not knowing what happened. It bothered me terribly, and they are the nicest people,” Henry said.

She started by calling detectives who were still assigned to the case. Then Maine State Police Detective Charles Love told Henry that Maxwell’s “disappearance was extremely strange.”

“The circumstances surrounding the way Maxwell’s body was found were reason enough to deem the death suspicious,” Love told Henry.

When Henry’s article was published in the Advertiser later that year, the renewed interest in the case uncovered six leads. None, however, led to any arrests.

Henry continued to write about the unsolved Maxwell case in later years, most recently this month.

“She was murdered more than 20 years ago, but her killer has yet to be found,” she wrote in the lead of an Aug. 2, 2007, article in the Advertiser.

Henry perseveres in her quest, believing someone local has information that could help police close the case.

“There are local people that know what happened to this girl. She was with a group of kids that night. … If somebody knows when she was last alone and who she was with, well …” Henry’s voice trailed off.

Henry believes there is a conspiracy of silence – “I think just because it is a local person. It might have been a friend of these kids and they just keep silent,” she said.

In the Aug. 2 story, Henry talked with Maxwell’s older brother, Frank, who now lives in Alexander. He said he appreciated the “aggressive pursuit of his sister’s case.”

Maine State Police Detective Micah Perkins, who is now handling the case, told the Bangor Daily News this week that the case remains open and he is hoping for new leads. After Henry’s last news story, Perkins said, two people called his office with information.

But “there are no updates to report,” Perkins said. He said he remains in touch with Maxwell’s family.

Twenty-three years after Maxwell’s death, Henry is even more passionate about finding Maxwell’s killer.

“I even feel worse for her parents,” she said. “It’s a local case that’s never been solved, and the person that did it is likely right here with us.”

And Henry now has an even more personal reason to solve the case.

“I have an 18-year-old,” said the mother of two, referring to Maxwell’s age when she died. “I know if anything happened to my kid, I wouldn’t be able to sleep and I wouldn’t stop until I found that person.”

Henry also credits her publisher for allowing her to keep the case alive and says she could not have spent so much time on the story if not for Calder’s support.

“We discuss it regularly. He wants it solved, too,” she said.

Calder said recently that he welcomed any news coverage of the story.

“That’s the whole point, to jog someone’s memory,” he said. “We’ve been trying that for a long time.”

Anyone with information should call the Maine State Police Criminal Investigation Division III at 800-432-7381.