ME-Missing paddle boarder Sunshine Stewart Found Dead by Homicide, Union 02 July 2025

  • #221
While this article was interesting, I agree with you. I suspect the camp owner has now received a cease and desist order from the AG office, and we won't see another peep from her for a while.

It would be wildly unconstitutional for the AG to demand her silence. Basic First Amendment stuff. The court can, theoretically, issue a gag order. Such orders are very rare. But the AG can’t unilaterally demand that a witness refrain from disclosing details to the press.

Example: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/...urces/standards/prosecutorial-investigations/
 
  • #222
When the articles list out all those different jobs she's had...I'm sure it could be stressful, but I bet it came with alot of fun as well. I hope she had joy and excitement throughout it all.
Agreed 100 %.
It sounded like Sunshine lived life to the fullest !!!
How cruel and selfish of the perp to steal it from her.
 
  • #223
Agree completely. I think the cops were able to see through him almost immediately, probably made him nervous enough to say something really stupid.
Ita.
The murderer showed cunning and resourcefulness.
I wouldn't be surprised if charges were upgraded to include premeditation as well ?
Imo.
 
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  • #224
Agreed 100 %.
It sounded like Sunshine lived life to the fullest !!!
How cruel and selfish of the perp to steal it from her.
Yes. There is beauty in how she lived. May it always be remembered 🙏🏻
 
  • #225
snipped, bbm

Oars could be used to inflict blunt-force trauma, fwiw.

I still am thinking (not based on fact, just speculation), that he accidently or recklessly hit her with the boat while motoring around the lake and then PANICKED, killing her to hide what he did.

That's my working theory at the moment, subject to change as we learn more.

jmo

Strangulation is not usually ever done in panic, other than to silence someone screaming who has already been assaulted. It takes an extraordinarily cold person to kill someone after an accident. IMO

I don't think the accident theory is at all plausible, IMO
 
  • #226
Oh Boy! Not what I was expecting. A 17 year old?

I can guarantee you that there were red flags.

Kid just threw his life away.

No question he will be tried as an adult.

MOO
 
  • #227
I get the feeling that this is a case of the perp inserting himself into the investigation (either because he thinks he's smarter than LE, or to see what info LE has, or to play the "helpful/concerned citizen" to try to avoid suspicion, or just because they want to "revisit" the crime). I don't think he confessed, maybe he was trying to point them away from the scene or trying to float an alternate perp theory to LE. But, in the end, it backfired on him as they continued to talk with him & then arrested him. MOO.

Agreed. I have so many questions about how Deven Young committed this crime, and why, what the circumstances were like. Hopefully more information will be released soon.

In the meantime, I (we) can only speculate, based on the limited info we have. I've been thinking about the fact that he killed Sunny via blunt force and strangulation, instead of shooting her, despite the fact that he had access to at least one gun, as seen in a photo of him sitting and holding a rifle. He chose to strangle Sunny to death, <modsnip: no link to information stated as fact>It's horrific. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to claim that Sunny dying was accidental. He then inserts himself into the investigation a couple weeks later, by "offering" to "help" the police. It's brazen for a teenager to not only murder someone 31 years older than he is, but to do so in such a personal, up-close manner. Shooting someone can be more impersonal, done from somewhat of a distance, without touching their body, and it could even be done accidentally. You can't accidentally strangle someone to death, however. He would have had to literally apply firm, sustained pressure to her neck for a prolonged period of time, most likely face to face with her. (Dear God, this poor woman; I can't imagine the pain and fear she experienced, and it's hard to even type about it).

My gut tells me Deven Young is possibly the "callous, no conscience, no empathy" type of killer who derives pleasure from witnessing the life leave a person. It doesn't seem like he was too worried about getting caught, or wracked with guilt and shame for what he did. He could have been euphoric and proud, actually - thrilled by having finally taken his first human life. In some sick way, he might have been eager to talk with the police about it, or maybe his offer to "help" the police with "information" about the investigation was just an impulsive action/decision as is typical of teenagers. I wonder how he initially tried to frame it with them - e.g. did he claim to have witnessed a different perpetrator hide Sunny's body? Or did he admit to Sunny's death but make up some dumb story about it being self-defense, or "consensual sex gone wrong"? I'm sure if he tried that, LE could see right through him, early on.

Maybe if LE stoked Deven's ego and pretended to be so appreciative of his "help," or expressed fake understanding of his viewpoint/story, it was enough to keep him talking and led to self-incrimination. I can imagine him being the type to just flat out confess, in detail, because he's proud of/excited by what he did and doesn't feel remorse.

A lot of speculation, I know. I might be totally off base. It's just such an unusual crime... a teenage boy fatally strangling a middle-aged woman he barely knows. How random was it, I wonder? How planned, versus totally spontaneous?
 
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  • #228
would they have taken it from a minor? would his parents have agreed? ... just asking cause I don't know the laws there

It would have been voluntary. Asking for DNA and requiring a person to give a sample is not the same thing. Without a warrant a person cannot be forced to give a DNA sample.
But… follow someone around and get a straw, piece of gum, cigarette, cup that touched their lips and you have their DNA with a high chance of it not being mixed with someone else.

So we don’t know if he gave voluntarily, but we do know if they were highly suspicious it wouldn’t be hard to obtain it.

IMO
 
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  • #229
Strangulation is not usually ever done in panic, other than to silence someone screaming who has already been assaulted. It takes an extraordinarily cold person to kill someone after an accident. IMO

I don't think the accident theory is at all plausible, IMO
I have moved away from that theory at the point, fwiw.

jmopinion
 
  • #230
The case is starting to remind me of the Karina Vetrano, the jogger in Queens NY. She was assaulted and killed by some random teen who happened upon her while riding his bike.

jmo
 
  • #231
The case is starting to remind me of the Karina Vetrano, the jogger in Queens NY. She was assaulted and killed by some random teen who happened upon her while riding his bike.

jmo

Yes, a teen attacking an adult woman they do not know is in common for these two cases, but
The difference is an expectation of safety due to the location.

Karina Vetrano was where the crime rate was much higher, usually she went with her Dad.
Rural Maine is not one of those places. No one would imagine a woman on a paddle board on a rural small lake/ campground in Maine would be murdered by a teenage boy.

What we do know is it took only 5 hours to convict KV’s murderer the second time around. He was acquitted the first time. He was sentenced to life in prison.
I hope that feels like justice to her family- it’s been about ten years now. Her mother became a loud advocate for justice, it took two trials. The description of her father when he found her body is heart wrenching.

IMO
 
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  • #232
If this perp hadn't been suspected and caught.... I believe he would've gone on to commit more murders !
To do something on this scale indicated to me that he was cold and calculated and possibly already broken -- maybe beyond repair ?
Like a budding serial killer.
Wonder if there are any past crimes he's committed but escaped detection thus far ?
Imo.
 
  • #233
Snipped

I don't think we have any info about sexual assault. Perhaps that happened, but we haven't heard that. Just strangulation and blunt force trauma - at this point.

jmo
IF as has been reported, LE was focused on collecting male DNA from fellow campers, IMO, the most likely reason is because they found biological evidence that SA occurred. JMO
 
  • #234
Deven Young appears to be contesting the charge of murder:

Court documents identified the teen as Deven Young, of Frankfort, Maine. He made a brief initial court appearance on Friday in which he entered a denial to the charge. His attorney, Jeremy Pratt, declined to comment to The Associated Press via email.
 
  • #235
Yes well ..... he can contest the charges as is his right.
However, LE would have had enough evidence to bring the charges, including dna, video footage of only the two of them going out to that island, what the perp may have said --even inadvertently-- to LE, i.e., "she had it coming..." (makes me sick to type that, but I'm thinking the suspect said something revealing !) ; etc.
I think they have D.Y. dead to rights.

At this time my guess is that the defense is going to try to bring forward any meds the perp was/is on and mental issues from before, in an effort to get a reduced or no sentence (mental hospital ?) all of which do not excuse a violent murder !
Imo.
 
  • #236
The thing that's so strange about this to me is, if he came at her in a threatening manner, I can't believe that she didn't scream or thrash in the water? Sound carries so loudly and fast across water. When people are on their boats on the lake in front of our cottage, I can hear their whole conversations and they are not shouting or being attacked.
 
  • #237
The thing that's so strange about this to me is, if he came at her in a threatening manner, I can't believe that she didn't scream or thrash in the water? Sound carries so loudly and fast across water. When people are on their boats on the lake in front of our cottage, I can hear their whole conversations and they are not shouting or being attacked.

The reported blunt force trauma and supposedly no screams makes me wonder if he attacked her from behind when she was having a look around the island.
 
  • #238
I suspect whatever happened to Sunny happened suddenly without warning. Did she happen upon him while he was up to something he didn't want seen or did he happen upon her and he just bam blitz attacked her or . . .

I just don't see anything terribly troubling about this kids FB and unless we learn there were red flags I am just stymied over what prompted this murder.
 
  • #239
Interview with the campground owner:

She states that the boy charged wasn't on the police radar for two weeks, and that he continued to act completely normal and interact with other campers, including volunteering to help out with tasks. It's hard to tell, but she seems to say that the police didn't review the footage, she did, and it was only to try and flag anyone who was a stranger and didn't belong at the camp since she would immediately recognize someone who shouldn't be there. Once he was a suspect she reviewed the footage again and could clearly see he's left in a boat ahead of Sunny that night.

There's not much troubling on his facebook up until the event (other than photos with guns, which if the rumors are to believed about his mental health struggles and issues with volatility are certainly a problem) but his TikTok, which doesn't seem to be up any more, had a lot disturbing content.
 
  • #240
Yes, a teen attacking an adult woman they do not know is in common for these two cases, but
The difference is an expectation of safety due to the location.

Karina Vetrano was where the crime rate was much higher, usually she went with her Dad.
Rural Maine is not one of those places. No one would imagine a woman on a paddle board on a rural small lake/ campground in Maine would be murdered by a teenage boy.

What we do know is it took only 5 hours to convict KV’s murderer the second time around. He was acquitted the first time. He was sentenced to life in prison.
I hope that feels like justice to her family- it’s been about ten years now. Her mother became a loud advocate for justice, it took two trials. The description of her father when he found her body is heart wrenching.

IMO
I didn't mean the crimes were identical, but that both were committed by teens without record, which is a bold crime for first-timers as a teen. And both teens attacked a grown woman out of their age range who was physically fit.

And while Queens is not the same as a lake in Maine, even the Queens crime scene was one that locals would go to, not a place outsiders ventured.


jmo
 

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