Days after the mysterious murder of a paddleboarder in Maine, state law officials said they continue to review potential clients and urged residents to remain attentive.
“The Maine State Police recognizes the fear and discomfort that this incident has brought to the city of Union and the community of Crawford Pond,” said Maine State Police in a statement on Wednesday. “We are still firm in our efforts to investigate the death of Sunshine Stewart, 48,”.
Stewart was found dead on July 3 at La Unión, approximately 30 miles east of Augusta, after the authorities responded to a report from a missing paddleboarder, state police said.
An autopsy determined that Stewart’s death is homicide, the agency said. His cause of death has not been released. A state police officer confirmed a report that Stewart was found “in unusual circumstances.”
The agency said that the owners of a nearby camp have been cooperative with the researchers and requested information from any person who saw Stewart Paddleboard between 6 PM and 9 pm on July 2 near an island in Crawford Pond.
The agency has published some other details about his death, but on Wednesday said that the main crime investigators have been examining all potential clients pushed through their entrance line and continue to follow “each Forensic and Forensic Avenue.”
A Stewart friend, Kimberly Hamill, told NBC News that it was “impossible” to make sense of his death.
“I grew up in the union, and as far as I know, nothing like this has happened there,” he said. “To have happened to Sunshine, how could that be?
Hamill described Stewart as a solid friend who had lived an incredible life: it was a carpenter who directed her own construction business. She was a boat captain who had sailed to the Virgin Islands. He did not graduate from high school, but managed to obtain a title in marine biology, Hamill said.
“I want people to remember her as the strength of nature it was,” Hamill said. “She was such a loyal and good person. That was her most memorable quality, how much she believed in everyone.”
