batmang
Diamond Member
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/09/05/cook.charged.ap/index.html
NEWRY, Maine (AP) -- Four people were slaughtered during a four-day killing spree in southern Maine's mountain ski country, and a 31-year-old cook who had been living at an inn where three victims died was charged Tuesday with murder.
Authorities characterized the slayings as Maine's most gruesome crime in 14 years.
Detectives say Christian Nielsen, 31, told them he first killed a local man on Friday.
Two days later he allegedly attacked the owner of the Black Bear Bed & Breakfast where he had been renting a room, according affidavits filed Tuesday as Nielsen made his initial court appearance.
The owner's 30-year-old daughter and a friend were killed when they arrived at the inn unexpectedly on Monday, the state police affidavits said.
Nielsen was charged with four counts of murder and ordered held without bail. He smiled as he left Oxford County Superior Court.
State police were alerted Monday evening by Nielsen's stepmother, who had arrived with the suspect's father at the Black Bear to find a woman's body and blood outside the restored farmhouse near the Sunday River ski resort. Nielsen's father told troopers he thought his son was involved, according to court documents.
The bodies of inn owner Julie Bullard, 65, her daughter Selby, and Cindy Beatson, 43, were all found outside the home. Authorities say a preliminary investigation showed the women had been shot, and then dismembered. Three dogs also were found shot to death, police said.
Nielsen later took a detective to a wooded are where the remains of the fourth victim, James Whitehurst, 50, were found north of Grafton Notch State Park, about 15 miles from the inn, the documents said. Whitehurst's remains also had been burned, authorities said.
Nielsen had been working at another bed and breakfast in nearby Bethel, the Sudbury Inn.
Nancy White, co-owner of the Sudbury Inn, was stunned to learn that the cook she and her husband had hired this summer had been arrested for murder. She described him as a reliable employee, a good cook and "soft-spoken, quiet individual."
"The whole thing is surreal. It's a shock to this small community," she said.
The phone rang unanswered Tuesday at the Black Bear, a white 1830s farmhouse with a red roof that was converted into a six-room bed-and-breakfast with a pool and tennis courts.
Police assured residents they had nothing to fear.
All victims were accounted for, "and there is no danger," said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
"We're all just numb with shock," said Robin Zinchuk, executive director of the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce. The area is near the New Hampshire line, about 75 miles northwest of Portland.
Maine is a state known for its low crime rate.
Its last quadruple murder was in 1992, when Virgil Smith set fire to a tenement at the foot of Portland's Munjoy Hill neighborhood, killing a woman, two men and a 10-month-old baby.
Nielsen had a history of driving offenses that included an arrest for drunken driving, but nothing more serious, Farmington police said. His license was revoked a year ago, said Farmington Lt. Jack Peck.
NEWRY, Maine (AP) -- Four people were slaughtered during a four-day killing spree in southern Maine's mountain ski country, and a 31-year-old cook who had been living at an inn where three victims died was charged Tuesday with murder.
Authorities characterized the slayings as Maine's most gruesome crime in 14 years.
Detectives say Christian Nielsen, 31, told them he first killed a local man on Friday.
Two days later he allegedly attacked the owner of the Black Bear Bed & Breakfast where he had been renting a room, according affidavits filed Tuesday as Nielsen made his initial court appearance.
The owner's 30-year-old daughter and a friend were killed when they arrived at the inn unexpectedly on Monday, the state police affidavits said.
Nielsen was charged with four counts of murder and ordered held without bail. He smiled as he left Oxford County Superior Court.
State police were alerted Monday evening by Nielsen's stepmother, who had arrived with the suspect's father at the Black Bear to find a woman's body and blood outside the restored farmhouse near the Sunday River ski resort. Nielsen's father told troopers he thought his son was involved, according to court documents.
The bodies of inn owner Julie Bullard, 65, her daughter Selby, and Cindy Beatson, 43, were all found outside the home. Authorities say a preliminary investigation showed the women had been shot, and then dismembered. Three dogs also were found shot to death, police said.
Nielsen later took a detective to a wooded are where the remains of the fourth victim, James Whitehurst, 50, were found north of Grafton Notch State Park, about 15 miles from the inn, the documents said. Whitehurst's remains also had been burned, authorities said.
Nielsen had been working at another bed and breakfast in nearby Bethel, the Sudbury Inn.
Nancy White, co-owner of the Sudbury Inn, was stunned to learn that the cook she and her husband had hired this summer had been arrested for murder. She described him as a reliable employee, a good cook and "soft-spoken, quiet individual."
"The whole thing is surreal. It's a shock to this small community," she said.
The phone rang unanswered Tuesday at the Black Bear, a white 1830s farmhouse with a red roof that was converted into a six-room bed-and-breakfast with a pool and tennis courts.
Police assured residents they had nothing to fear.
All victims were accounted for, "and there is no danger," said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
"We're all just numb with shock," said Robin Zinchuk, executive director of the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce. The area is near the New Hampshire line, about 75 miles northwest of Portland.
Maine is a state known for its low crime rate.
Its last quadruple murder was in 1992, when Virgil Smith set fire to a tenement at the foot of Portland's Munjoy Hill neighborhood, killing a woman, two men and a 10-month-old baby.
Nielsen had a history of driving offenses that included an arrest for drunken driving, but nothing more serious, Farmington police said. His license was revoked a year ago, said Farmington Lt. Jack Peck.
