Maine
Killing of Sidney teen leaves community asking questions
A home at 2005 Summerhaven Road in Sidney on Saturday is clear of the police tape that cordoned it off Friday while Maine State Police and local officers investigated the killing of a 14-year-old boy. A woman was arrested after reporting to the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office that a crime had occurred at the home early Friday morning. Ethan Horton/Kennebec Journal
SIDNEY — One day after a woman was arrested in connection with the homicide of a 14-year-old boy, residents of a residential neighborhood were left with more questions than answers, as police continued to withhold information about the boy and what exactly happened.
Police had left 2005 Summerhaven Road in Sidney by Saturday morning. There was little sign of the daylong investigation at the home Friday as snow flurries fell on a bitterly cold day.
Brady Maheux, 25, said he has lived his whole life on the windy, residential road near the Augusta-Sidney line, but did not know the people who lived in the house under investigation Friday.
“How does something like that happen?” said Maheux. “What the hell happened? It’s crazy.”
Megan McDonald, 39, was arrested Friday afternoon and charged with murder, Maine State Police said in a statement issued Friday evening. The arrest came after police found a 14-year-old boy dead outside the Summerhaven Road residence, state police said.
Megan McDonald Courtesy of Kennebec County jail
The Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta determined the cause of the boy’s death as “a combination of asphyxiation, manual strangulation, and sharp force injury,” according to state police. The medical examiner’s office also ruled the manner of death as homicide.
Investigators were seen throughout the day Friday working at 2005 Summerhaven Road, a single-story home, with a detached garage flying a U.S. Marine Corps flag.
Town tax records list the property’s owner as Megan McDonald.
State police said they were called to investigate after Kennebec County sheriff’s deputies conducted a wellbeing check and found the dead teenager. The deputies were asked to conduct the check after a woman reported an incident at her home to the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office, according to state police.
Why the incident was reported there was not known Saturday. Just before 5:30 a.m., “an adult female arrived at the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office to report an incident that occurred at her home,” state police said Friday.
The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office, in Auburn, is about a 40-mile drive from the Summerhaven Road residence in Sidney, according to GPS mapping.
Androscoggin County Sheriff Eric Samson wrote in a message Saturday the woman who reported the crime in the Sheriff’s Office lobby was taken into custody, though he did not release that woman’s name. Samson referred further questions to a state police spokesperson.
Before police announced the homicide investigation Friday, Carl Gartley, superintendent of Regional School Unit 18, had sent an announcement to community members earlier in the day that a Messalonskee High School student had died. Sidney is one of the towns served by the Oakland-based district.
“Due to an ongoing police investigation, we are unable to release a name at this time,” Gartley wrote Friday.
Police and school district officials remained tight-lipped about the 14-year-old boy’s identity through the weekend, and it was not clear if the Messalonskee student who died was the one found dead on Summerhaven Road.
“I was hoping to release the name yesterday (Friday) but it’s ultimately up to the AG’s Office,” Shannon Moss, public information officer for the Maine Department of Public Safety, wrote in an email Saturday.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Maine Attorney General, which prosecutes all homicides in the state, did not respond to a message Saturday.
A woman retrieving her mail outside her home on Birch Circle, around the corner from the Summerhaven Road residence, said she knew the boy killed in the alleged homicide, but did not want to share any details publicly about him or provide her name until police release the name.
Several state police cruisers and a large Maine State Police Evidence Response Team box truck are parked at 2005 Summerhaven Road in Sidney on Friday afternoon. State police say they discovered the body of a 14-year-old outside of the home early Friday morning. Megan McDonald, 39, was taken into custody and charged with murder. Keith Edwards/Kennebec Journal
Another man, who has lived on Birch Circle for about 30 years, said he was cordial with the people that lived at the home where police were investigating but did not know them well. He was not sure how many people lived there and never knew them by name.
He called them “decent folks” and said he would see them if their dog got loose or when he was walking his dog in the area.
“There has been nothing that would’ve led you to believe there was anything wrong,” said the man, who declined to give his name because he did not want attention from other neighbors for speaking to the news media.
“Had we known, would we have done something?” he continued. “Of course.”
At several other nearby homes, residents either were not home Saturday morning or did not answer the door. Others who did answer the door said they did not know much beyond the information released by state police.
Maheux, the 25-year-old Summerhaven Road resident said he did not even hear or see police investigators arrive in the morning.
“I believe I was awake at that hour when they had gotten there,” Maheux said. “I never heard anything in the morning hours either.”
It is usually a quiet neighborhood, he said. “Nothing goes on out here.”
A neighbor of Maheux, who declined to provide his name, said the same, but recalled at least one other major incident nearby in recent years: a double homicide of an Augusta couple, found dead in the woods in Manchester, on Christmas Day in 2015. That killing was found to be related to drug dealing.
More information about Friday’s alleged homicide could emerge Monday, when McDonald would likely appear in court. If she remains in custody Monday, McDonald would be expected to make an initial court appearance in Kennebec County.
At that initial appearance, usually a brief hearing, a judge would read McDonald the charge against her. McDonald would not be required to enter a plea then, since prosecutors first need to present their case to a grand jury for an indictment before it could move forward.
It was not known Saturday if McDonald has an attorney. That information in Maine is only available through court clerk’s offices, which are closed on the weekends.
At Messalonskee High School in Oakland, about 14 miles north of the Sidney neighborhood, counseling sessions were available from 9-11 a.m., according to the announcement from school administrators.
Around 1 p.m., it was quiet around the school as a snow flurry fell. Only a handful of cars were in the parking lot, and there were no signs of any kind of memorials placed by community members.
“As we travel through our break, if you are in need, please do not hesitate to reach out for support,” the high school said in a Facebook post Saturday. “We are Messalonskee Strong.”
The post offered several resources:
• National Alliance on Mental Illness Maine: 1-800-464-5767, info@namimaine.org, call or text 988
• The Crisis Text Line: text “Home” to 741-741
• Crisis and Counseling Centers: 1-888-568-1112 or 207-626-3448
Sun Journal reporter Joe Charpentier contributed to this report.
Maine
This Classic New England-Style Cottage in Maine Has 200 Feet of Atlantic Ocean Frontage
A waterfront home with open ocean views on the coast of Maine came to market Tuesday asking $4 million.
Built in 1978, the three-bedroom cottage is at the southern point of Cape Elizabeth, less than 10 miles from downtown Portland. The 1.1-acre property on Sunny Bank Road features 200 feet of south-facing water frontage on the wide open Atlantic.
It is bordered by a rocky sea wall that’s about 28 feet high, according to listing agent Sam Michaud Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty
“The views are like a Monet painting,” he said via email. “The water sparkles and the waves are endless.”
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The 3,364-square-foot home was built in classic New England style, with shingle siding, a single sloped roofline and large windows—complemented by white-washed walls, exposed-beam ceilings and wide-plank flooring on the interiors.
The main common area features cathedral ceilings with a step-down between the living and dining room, and a partial wall divides the dining room from the kitchen. There is also a wood-paneled family room off the kitchen, a gym and a covered porch.
The sellers purchased the property in 2010 for $1.562 million, according to property records accessed through PropertyShark. They could not immediately be reached for comment.
“I have received quite a few inquiries since hitting the market two days ago,” Michaud said. “Buyers understand that this is a golden opportunity to own over an acre with 200 feet of bold oceanfront in Cape Elizabeth.”
MORE: Iranian Strikes on Dubai Put the City’s Roaring Real Estate Market to the Test
There are currently just seven three-bedroom homes available for sale in Cape Elizabeth and fewer than five waterfront properties, according to Sotheby’s and Zillow data. It is also the most expensive listing in the town, with another waterfront property on a tiny lot just south of Portland coming in a close second, according to Zillow.
Michaud sold the former Cape Elizabeth home of Bette Davis this past summer for $13.4 million, the priciest sale on the cape in at least a decade—and even those views can’t compare. They’re “just magical,” he said.
Maine
NECEC conservation plan will not protect Maine’s mature forests | Opinion
Robert Bryan is a licensed forester from Harpswell and author or co-author of numerous publications on managing forests for wildlife. Paul Larrivee is a licensed forester from New Gloucester who manages both private and public lands, and a former Maine Forest Service forester.
In November 2025, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved a conservation plan and forest management plan as mitigation for impacts from the NECEC transmission corridor that runs from the Quebec border 53 miles to central Maine.
As professional foresters, we were astonished by the lack of scientific credibility in the definition of “mature forest habitat” that was approved by DEP, and the business-as-usual commercial forestry proposed for over 80% of the conservation area.
The DEP’s approval requires NECEC to establish and protect 50,000 acres to be managed for mature-forest wildlife species and wildlife travel corridors along riparian areas and between mature forest habitats. The conservation plan will establish an area adjacent to the new transmission corridor to be protected under a conservation easement held by the state. Under this plan, 50% of the area will be managed as mature forest habitat.
Under the forest management plan, a typical even-aged stand will qualify as “mature forest habitat” once 50 feet tall, which is only about 50 years old. These stands will lack large trees that provide wildlife denning and nesting sites, multiple vegetation layers that mature-forest birds use for nesting and feeding habitats and large decaying trees and downed logs that provide habitat for insects, fungi and small mammals, which in turn benefit larger predators.
Another major concern is that contrary to the earlier DEP order, the final approval allows standard sustainable forestry operations on the 84% of the forest located outside the stream buffers and special habitats. These stands may be harvested as soon as they achieve the “mature forest habitat” definition, as long as 50% of the conserved land is maintained as “mature.”
After the mature forest goal is reached, clearcutting or other heavy harvesting could occur on thousands of acres every 10 years. Because the landowner — Weyerhaeuser — owns several hundred thousand acres in the vicinity, any reductions in harvesting within the conservation area can simply be offset by cutting more heavily nearby. As a result, the net
mature-forest benefit of the conservation area will be close to zero.
Third, because some mature stands will be cut before the 50% mature forest goal is reached, it will take 40 years — longer than necessary — to reach the goal.
In the near future the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) will consider an appeal from environmental organizations of the plan approval. To ensure that ecologically mature forest develops in a manner that meets the intent of the DEP/BEP orders, several things need to change.
First and most important, to ensure that characteristics of mature forest habitat have time to develop it is critical that the definition include clear requirements for the minimum number of large-diameter (hence more mature) trees, adjusted by forest type. At least half the stocking of an area of mature forest habitat should be in trees at least 10 inches in diameter, and at least 20% of stands beyond the riparian buffers should have half the stocking in trees greater than or equal to 16 inches in diameter.
Current research as well as guidelines for defining ecologically mature forests, such as those in Maine Audubon’s Forestry for Maine Birds, should be followed.
Second, limits should be placed on the size and distribution of clearcut or “shelterwood” harvest patches so that even-aged harvests are similar in size to those created by typical natural forest disturbance patterns. These changes will help ensure that the mature-forest block and connectivity requirements of the orders are met.
Third, because the forest impacts have already occurred, no cutting should be allowed in the few stands that meet or exceed the DEP-approved definition — which needs to be revised as described above — until the 50% or greater mature-forest goal is reached.
If allowed to stand, the definitions and management described in the forest management plan would set a terrible precedent for conserving mature forests in Maine. The BEP should uphold the appeal and establish standards for truly mature forest habitat.
Maine
Rage Room in Portland, Maine, Developing ‘Scream Room’ Addition
For a lot of people throughout Maine, there’s some built up frustration that they’ve just been keeping inside.
That frustration can come in a lot of different forms. From finances to relationships to the world around you.
So it makes plenty of sense that a rage room opened in Portland, Maine, where people can let some of that frustration out.
It’s called Mayhem and people have been piling in to smash, crush and do dastardly things to inanimate objects that had no idea what was coming.
But Mayhem has realized not everyone is down with swinging a sledgehammer. So they’ve decided to cook up something new.
Mayhem Creating ‘Scream Room’ at Their Space in Portland, Maine
Perhaps the thought of swinging a baseball bat and destroying a glass vase brings you joy. The thought of how sore your body will be after that moment makes you less excited.
Mayhem Portland has heard you loud and clear and is developing a new way to get the rage out. By just screaming.
Mayhem is working on opening their very first scream room. It’s exactly what you think it is, a safe place to spend some time just screaming all of the frustration out.
There isn’t an official opening date set yet but it’s coming soon along with pricing.
Mayhem in Portland, Maine, Will Still Offer Rage Rooms and Paint Splatter
While a scream room is on the way, you can still experience a good time at Mayhem with one of their rage rooms or a paint splatter room.
Both can be experienced in either 20-minute or 30-minute sessions.
All the details including some age and attire requirements can be found here.
TripAdvisor’s Top 10 Things to do in Portland, Maine
Looking for fun things to do in Portland, ME? Here is what the reviewers on TripAdvisor say are the 10 best attractions.
This list was updated in March of 2026
Gallery Credit: Chris Sedenka
Top 15 of The Most Powerful People in Maine
Ever wonder who the most powerful players are in Maine? I’ve got a list!
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