DOVER-FOXCROFT – The late Rosalie Shedd, 70, who was murdered last week by her brother, was remembered Wednesday night as a wife, mother, sister, grandmother, neighbor and friend.
More than 60 people, most bundled in warm clothing to ward off the raw wind, gathered in near darkness outside of Shedd’s home at Riverview Apartments to honor her memory during a candlelight vigil. Among them were Shedd’s children, her grandchildren, neighbors and friends.
As a woman played the somber strains of “Amazing Grace” on a violin, some participants began to weep.
“This is the opportunity we have to share with the family our support in their time of grief,” Art Jette of Womancare, told the crowd. Womancare is a community-based organization working to end domestic violence.
Michael P. Toby, 53, Shedd’s brother, admitted to police that on Oct. 22 he struck his sister’s head repeatedly before strangling her and placing a plastic bag over her head. Toby, who had recently moved in with his sister, has been charged with murder in the town’s first homicide since 1990. He made his initial court appearance Oct. 24 in 13th District Court in Dover-Foxcroft.
Shedd was an innocent victim of violence and when violence occurs in a community, it touches everyone, Jette said.
Shedd touched many people including Shirley Langley who recalled Wednesday that her friend was a “wonderful woman. She was a sweetheart.”
Although her encounter with the victim had been a brief one, an unidentified woman recalled stopping at one of Shedd’s yard sales. The woman said Shedd tried to give everything away rather than sell it, she was that kind.
Others also described Shedd as a caring and loving woman.
Stressing the need to end domestic violence, Jette said, “There can’t be peace in the world until there is peace at home.”
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