Was Cape Breton man a vigilante killer?
U.S. police ask why man would have shot two sex offenders, himself
Mary Vallis and Katie Rook,
National Post, Canada
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Houlton, Maine (US):
Investigators in the United States are struggling to understand why a "nice, quiet, reliable" dishwasher from Nova Scotia may have murdered two convicted sex offenders in Maine before taking his own life on Sunday.
Authorities in Maine say Stephen A. Marshall, 20, arrived in Houlton, Me., on Thursday to spend Easter with his father, Ralph, an avid hunter and employee of a local native band.
Authorities say during the father-son visit, Stephen Marshall also logged on to Maine's online sex offender registry, which contains the names, photographs and offences of more than 2,200 criminals, and looked up 34 convicts in five towns throughout the state.
By Sunday evening, two registered sex offenders and Mr. Marshall were dead.
The young man shot himself on a crowded bus bound for Boston after police officers boarded to question him about the murders.
The surrounding passengers were spattered with blood.
"There is no connection that we're aware of between the three men," said Stephen McCausland, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. The only link, he said, is both of the victims were registered sex offenders.
Authorities say Mr. Marshall, who was raised in Nova Scotia by his mother and stepfather, stole a rifle, a .22-calibre handgun and a .45-calibre handgun from his father's apartment and disappeared in the man's truck early on Sunday morning.
The first victim -- Joseph Lewis Gray, 57, a man convicted of raping a child in Massachusetts -- was shot to death in his Milo, Me., apartment around 3:15 a.m. Sunday.
Five hours later, around 8:15 a.m., a witness in Corinth saw a man matching Mr. Marshall's description near the mobile home of William Elliott, 24, a junkyard operator who spent four months in jail in 2002 after sexually abusing a minor. Mr. Elliott's girlfriend watched as he opened the door, his father said yesterday.
"He opened the door, and the guy just started shooting," Wayne Elliott said.
A witness saw a man matching Mr. Marshall's description leaving the scene in a truck and jotted down the licence plate.
The truck, registered to Mr. Marshall's father, was later found outside behind a bus depot in Bangor.
Officers with the Maine State Police deduced the young man must have boarded a Vermont Bus Lines coach headed for Boston.
State police also alerted authorities in Massachusetts and the bus was intercepted after it reached the city, a few kilometres from its destination, South Station.
Two transit officers boarded the bus and asked the driver to turn on the overhead lights said David Procopio, spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney.
"Several seconds later, the suspect of the main homicides, Stephen Marshall, shot himself in the head with a .45-calibre handgun that he was carrying," Mr. Procopio said.
Apr 18, 2006
U.S. police ask why man would have shot two sex offenders, himself
Mary Vallis and Katie Rook,
National Post, Canada
_______________
Houlton, Maine (US):
Investigators in the United States are struggling to understand why a "nice, quiet, reliable" dishwasher from Nova Scotia may have murdered two convicted sex offenders in Maine before taking his own life on Sunday.
Authorities in Maine say Stephen A. Marshall, 20, arrived in Houlton, Me., on Thursday to spend Easter with his father, Ralph, an avid hunter and employee of a local native band.
Authorities say during the father-son visit, Stephen Marshall also logged on to Maine's online sex offender registry, which contains the names, photographs and offences of more than 2,200 criminals, and looked up 34 convicts in five towns throughout the state.
By Sunday evening, two registered sex offenders and Mr. Marshall were dead.
The young man shot himself on a crowded bus bound for Boston after police officers boarded to question him about the murders.
The surrounding passengers were spattered with blood.
"There is no connection that we're aware of between the three men," said Stephen McCausland, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. The only link, he said, is both of the victims were registered sex offenders.
Authorities say Mr. Marshall, who was raised in Nova Scotia by his mother and stepfather, stole a rifle, a .22-calibre handgun and a .45-calibre handgun from his father's apartment and disappeared in the man's truck early on Sunday morning.
The first victim -- Joseph Lewis Gray, 57, a man convicted of raping a child in Massachusetts -- was shot to death in his Milo, Me., apartment around 3:15 a.m. Sunday.
Five hours later, around 8:15 a.m., a witness in Corinth saw a man matching Mr. Marshall's description near the mobile home of William Elliott, 24, a junkyard operator who spent four months in jail in 2002 after sexually abusing a minor. Mr. Elliott's girlfriend watched as he opened the door, his father said yesterday.
"He opened the door, and the guy just started shooting," Wayne Elliott said.
A witness saw a man matching Mr. Marshall's description leaving the scene in a truck and jotted down the licence plate.
The truck, registered to Mr. Marshall's father, was later found outside behind a bus depot in Bangor.
Officers with the Maine State Police deduced the young man must have boarded a Vermont Bus Lines coach headed for Boston.
State police also alerted authorities in Massachusetts and the bus was intercepted after it reached the city, a few kilometres from its destination, South Station.
Two transit officers boarded the bus and asked the driver to turn on the overhead lights said David Procopio, spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney.
"Several seconds later, the suspect of the main homicides, Stephen Marshall, shot himself in the head with a .45-calibre handgun that he was carrying," Mr. Procopio said.
Apr 18, 2006
