When word got out at the Mic Mac Cove Campground that a paddleboarder’s death had been ruled as murder, 17-year-old Deven Young seemed eager to help track down her killer.
Young, of Frankfort, had been staying with his parents at the camp in Union, Maine, earlier this month when police found Sunshine “Sunny” Stewart strangled and bludgeoned to death on Crawford Pond.
The boy was described as polite but “awkward” and liked to go out on the 600-acre pond in his little boat, Mic Mac owner Katherine Lunt told ABC News this week. He helped other campers with their yards and pets, and made wooden crafts for his neighbors, she said.
Young volunteered to help authorities with their investigation and implored that “he had something to show them,” Lunt added.
According to the campground owner, the teen took police in the opposite direction to where Stewart was found and led them on a “wild goose chase.”
After speaking with Young for several hours on July 16, investigators left the camp, only to return that evening to arrest the teen and eventually charge him with murder in connection with Stewart’s death.
Young, who was arraigned last week, has been held at a youth detention facility in the Portland area “to prevent the juvenile from inflicting bodily harm on others,” Judge Eric Walker ruled Friday.
He is due in Rockland District Court on August 22, weeks before his 18th birthday. Main prosecutors confirmed on Monday that they have filed a motion to try the defendant as an adult.
Maine State Police said Stewart, 48, was discovered under “unusual circumstances” by state game wardens at about 1 a.m. on July 3 near 100 Acre Island on Crawford Pond.
Officials stated that the area can only be accessed by boat.
Stewart, an avid outdoorswoman and experienced paddleboarder from Tenants Harbor, 25 miles south of where her body was found, left the Mic Mac campground for the pond by herself between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. the evening before, authorities said.
That evening, Lunt said she spotted Stewart’s friend searching the waterfront by flashlight, prompting the campground owner to check the area out.
Neither Stewart nor her blue paddleboard was in sight.
“Maybe she had been hit by a boat,” Lunt speculated. “We had no idea why she hadn’t returned.”
Six hours after the woman headed out to the water, Lunt said she phoned the police which sparked a multi-agency search.
In the early hours of July 3, two local residents found a paddleboard, which led responders to Stewart’s body.
Given the circumstances of the discovery, wardens called in the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit, stating they did not believe Stewart had drowned or died by suicide.
An autopsy performed by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Maine on the day Stewart’s body was found determined she was a homicide victim.
Police combed through evidence for almost two weeks at the campground. Lunt said she became “obsessed” with finding the murder suspect and scoured through hours of surveillance tapes and rallied campers to offer up footage and provide their DNA.
As police arrested Young on July 16, Lunt again studied security footage from the time of Stewart’s disappearance and she made a discovery: the boy appeared to have been on the lake at the time.
Before darkness had fallen, Young returned to land, she said.
Just two days after the murder, Young posted a photograph to Facebook where he replied to a friend’s comment that he was “doing well,” according to CBS News affiliate WGME.
“It’s haunting,” Lunt continued. “He was not on anybody’s radar.”
It is unknown what led to Young’s arrest. He denied the charges in his brief first court appearance.
Stewart’s loved ones are now left grieving a woman they describe as a fiercely independent adventurer who was deeply dedicated to her loved ones.
Speaking to ABC News affiliate WMTW-TV earlier this month, Stewart’s sister Kim Ware remembered her sibling as a “truly amazing” aunt, the “world’s best bartender, sternman, lobersterman, and boat captain.”
Ware set up a GoFundMe and raised more than $34,000 to help cover funeral costs, and said a celebration of Stewart’s life has been scheduled for August 10 in Tenants Harbor.
