See: Triple homicide jolts remote Maine town
"Grisly crime has Maine on high alert; Police hunt killer of two men, boy" by Peter Schworm and Ben Austin, Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent | June 26, 2010
AMITY, Maine — Even for northern Maine, this 200-person town is remote, just a smattering of small, secluded homes in the woods a few miles from the Canadian border.
A mobile home just off Route 1 here was the grisly scene of a mysterious triple murder Wednesday that has deeply unnerved residents and put authorities across the state on high alert.
Two men and a 10-year-old boy were found stabbed to death late Wednesday, and authorities embarked on an intensive search for a blue-and- silver
Authorities would not disclose whether they had identified any potential suspects, but acknowledged that the driver of the truck could be anywhere....
Police declined to speculate on motives and said they were investigating accusations from Jeff Ryan’s former wife that he sold prescription pain-killers from his home.
The savagery of the killings has rattled residents....
Police would not provide details of the crime....
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At least they found the truck:
A pickup stolen from the scene of a triple homicide in Amity was found abandoned on a backroad yesterday, about 15 miles from the mobile home where two men and a boy were fatally stabbed Wednesday. Police across Maine had searched for the
They did finally find him:
"No bail for Maine man accused in slaying of 3" by Holly Ramer, Associated Press | July 7, 2010
ROCHESTER, N.H. — A Maine man charged with killing two men and a 10-year-old boy in his home state late last month will be held without bail in New Hampshire pending rendition proceedings, a judge ruled yesterday.
Thayne Ormsby of Orient, Maine, showed no emotion as he was arraigned yesterday in Rochester District Court by video hookup from the Strafford County jail. He did not have a lawyer and did not enter a plea....
Ormsby is charged in the stabbing deaths of Jeffrey Ryan, 55; Ryan’s son, Jesse; and Jason Dehahn, 30; at Ryan’s home in the northern Maine town of Amity, near the Canadian border. The three were last seen alive June 22; their bodies were discovered the next day.
The 20-year-old Ormsby was arrested after police obtained DNA and fingerprint evidence from a beer can and cigarette butt in Ryan’s home.
So far, the only hint at motive for the carnage at Ryan’s mobile home was Ormsby’s statement to Maine detectives that he killed Ryan because he thought he was a drug dealer....
A relative of one of the victims has suggested Ormsby targeted Ryan for a different reason.
Dehahn’s brother, Jake, told the Bangor Daily News that Ormsby planned to move in with Jeffrey Ryan’s 16-year-old daughter and the girl’s mother in Weston, Maine, but Ryan had told Ormsby to stay away from the girl.
Investigators are looking into relationships and other possible motives, said Bill Stokes, Maine’s deputy attorney general. For now, however, investigators declined to release further details....
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That is when the case becomes really bizarre:
"Maine slaying suspect had outbursts, priest says" by David Sharp, Associated Press | July 8, 2010
PORTLAND, Maine — The young man charged in the slashing deaths of a 10-year-old boy and two men in northern Maine appeared at times to be possessed by an evil force that caused him to erupt in anger, according to an Anglican priest who let the man live with him for two months.
The Rev. Lewis Glidden of St. Stephen the Martyr Anglican Church said he sometimes looked in Thayne Ormsby’s eyes and saw a demon staring back. Glidden allowed Ormsby to move in with him in December, but kicked him out because parishioners were frightened by his angry outbursts....
You guys didn't penetrate him or anything, did you?
For a time, Ormsby lived in Farmington at the home of Republican congressional candidate John Frary, who failed in 2008 to unseat Representative Mike Michaud, a Democrat.
They eventually parted ways last year, Frary said, after a disagreement over an overloaded washing machine. Frary said he never saw any “blow-ups or wild-eyed stuff.’’
In December, Glidden agreed to let Ormsby live in his rectory in Oakland, where his church had moved. But he soon realized he had made a mistake.
While Glidden was in China in January, several women who were doing work in the rectory contacted Glidden to express their fear of Ormsby.--more--"
So what was it?
Drugs, sex, or possession?
"Man: Drug debt played role in triple killing" by Clarke Canfield, Associated Press Writer | July 12, 2010
PORTLAND, Maine --The 20-year-old man charged in a brutal triple murder in northern Maine told the family he was staying with that the killings followed a confrontation over a $10,000 drug debt, according to a man who had let the suspect stay in his home.
Robert Strout, 63, said he and his wife opened up their home in Orient to Thayne Ormsby, who showed up covered in blood a few weeks later after the stabbings of Jeffrey Ryan, his 10-year-old son, Jesse, and Jason Dehahn, a friend and neighbor, in the nearby town of Amity....
Ormsby was brought to Maine on Monday from New Hampshire, where he was arrested July 2 and later waived extradition.
Related(?): Bridging the Gap Between Maine and New Hampshire
He is being held without bail pending arraignment on July 21 at the Aroostook County Jail. An attorney will be appointed for him, according to the attorney general's office.
The victims' bodies were discovered the night of June 23 by Dehahn's father and brother, who had gone looking for him after he had failed to return home.
In the weeks leading up to the killings, Ormsby had been staying with the Strouts. Robert Strout's wife, Joy, said she and her husband are disabled and that Ormsby helped them by cooking and cleaning and tending to their pheasants, quail and other birds. Ormsby's mother is good friends with one of the Strouts' daughters, she said.
During his stay, Ormsby was respectful, polite and helpful, she said. He didn't drink alcohol, and he rolled his own cigarettes. He sometimes smoked marijuana, but never at their home, she said. The Strouts encouraged him to earn a GED diploma and to find a job, she said.
But the Strouts' image of a smart and polite young man soon came crashing down.
Robert Strout told police that after the killings Ormsby rode up on his bicycle to his home, where Strout saw that his shirt, pants and shoes were covered in blood.
Robert Strout, who said he feared for his life, drove Ormsby to Strout's daughter's house in the town of Weston, where Ormsby burned his clothes in a furnace. He then drove Ormsby to a rural road where Ormsby set fire to Ryan's truck, which Ormsby had stolen after the killings.
Two days later, Robert Strout drove Ormsby to his son's house in Dover, N.H., but only because he feared for the safety of his family after Ormsby threatened him, he said.
"He said, 'Keep your mouth shut and nothing will happen. If you say anything, I will hurt your family,'" said Strout, who has not been charged with a crime....
Details of the motive for the killings have been scarce.
According to an affidavit, Ormsby told police he killed Jeff Ryan because he was a "drug dealer." But Jason Dehahn's brother, Jake, offered another potential explanation in which Ormsby was angry after being told to stay away from Ryan's 16-year-old daughter, who lives with her mother in another town.
None of those theories -- including Robert Strout's comments about the drug debt -- help explain how Ormsby turned from a decent person one moment into a "monster," Joy Strout said....
"TRIPLE HOMICIDE -- Thayne Ormsby with his lawyers, Sarah LeClaire and James Dunleaby, at his arraignment yesterday in Houlton, Maine. Ormsby, 20, faces three counts of murder in the deaths of Jeffrey Ryan, his son Jesse, and neighbor Jason Dehahn in Amity (Boston Globe July 22 2010)."
