Maine paddleboarder murder suspect acted 'totally normal': Campground owner
No one expected their summer on the lush, serene banks of Crawford Pond, Maine, to be upended by a heinous killing. That peace was shattered this July when camp newcomer Sunshine "Sunny" Stewart had gone paddleboarding -- and never came back.
Police found the 48-year-old strangled and bludgeoned to death the next morning. A two-week hunt for a killer ensued. It was even more shocking when that search stopped -- and authorities were able to make an arrest, and the suspect turned out to be a 17-year-old staying at the camp.
In her first interview since police charged Deven Young with Stewart's murder on Friday, Mic Mac Campground owner Katharine Lunt explained to ABC News the horror that engulfed her idyllic corner of rural Maine since July 2, and how fiercely driven she's been to protect it.
"It's not a place where these things happen," Lunt said. "It's not a place where we're suspect of each other," she said, describing the grounds as a "haven for all of us."
Lunt first met Stewart at the beginning of May when she registered for a seasonal campsite with a friend.
"Sunny was very excited to be on the lake and paddleboard," Lunt said.
Just before America's birthday, Stewart set out on the pond for a quiet evening swim and paddle. She left her purse in her car, its windows open, Lunt said. Just before midnight, Lunt noticed on her security camera system that Stewart's friend was searching the waterfront with a flashlight -- prompting Lunt to check it out.
Stewart's board and paddle were missing. She was nowhere to be found. Lunt called local police, and the search ensued.
"We first thought that maybe she was hurt," Lunt said. "Maybe she had been hit by a boat. We had no idea why she hadn't returned."
State and local agencies and even locals helped look for Stewart by land, water and air with the help of a drone. Dense fog sat on the banks of the 600-acre pond. Two local residents found a blue paddleboard -- which then helped direct police's attention to the area where her body would be found.
As police combed through evidence day after day at the campground, Lunt was determined to help crack the case. She combed over footage from her robust surveillance apparatus around camp, with a total of 16 security cameras, that authorities say was in fact key to the investigation.
"I was looking for a stranger, somebody out of the ordinary," Lunt said. "Absolutely nobody was looking for a child. We were looking for an adult."
It created an atmosphere of suspicion, according to Lunt.
"When we didn't know what had happened, and we felt there was a stranger amongst us, so every day I was up at dawn till dusk at the gate of the campground, making sure that we were not allowing any strangers in our community," she said.
Lunt helped rally campers to offer their footage if it might have something, and even volunteer their DNA.
"I was obsessed with finding out who did this -- because it was terrifying for everybody," she said.
One young man staying with his parents at Mic Mac that summer seemed eager to help, too: a 17-year-old always offering to help others with their yard work or loose pets. He'd even made wood crafts to give to other campers, Lunt said. He liked to go out on his little boat.
Deven Young had something to show police that might help, Lunt recalled Young said. He took an investigator and the warden out on the water.
"He volunteered, he said he had some information, and he took them in the opposite direction of where Sunny was found," Lunt said. "He had said he had something to show them, and took them out on the lake on pretty much a wild goose chase."
For two weeks, the suspect was "acting totally normal," Lunt said. "He acted like nothing ever happened." She shook her head. "It's haunting. He was not on anybody's radar."
Lunt believes that perhaps Young "said something" that caught investigators' attention and made them scrutinize him more closely. After speaking with him for a couple more hours, police left, only to return that evening and head directly for the Young family's site. He was arrested the evening of July 16.
Young has been charged with Stewart's murder and is currently in custody at a juvenile detention facility. State prosecutors have moved to charge him as an adult, according to a spokesperson for the Maine Attorney General's office. That request has not yet been ruled on.
At his first court appearance Friday, Young entered a denial on the charge which will be addressed at a later hearing. His attorney had no comment.
As police were at the Youngs' door the night of his arrest, Lunt pored over any surveillance footage she could find that might give a clue.
"Just thinking, no way, this cannot be happening," Lunt said. "Then I went back to surveillance cameras to see where he was at the time [of the killing] -- and those surveillance videos indicated he was on the lake at the time."
Young returned to land before it was dark on the night of the killing, according to Lunt's surveillance footage.
Though Lunt didn't know Young well, she knows one thing: she never saw him and Stewart interact.
Young's family had first camped at Mic Mac during the 2024 summer season, and returned this year. His grandparents had a site previously and he had visited them sometimes, too. Stewart had only been there for a few days.
"They hadn't crossed paths," she said. "I think she was at the wrong place at the wrong time."
Lunt recalls Young as perhaps an "awkward boy," but polite with no particular red flags she could recall.
"We have a lot of kids, and they do a lot of things -- but not anything that would make you think that any child was going to murder somebody here," she said. "I have nothing nice to say. It's disgusting."
At his first court appearance on Friday, Young entered a denial -- a procedural move disputing the allegations -- and arguments will be heard at a later hearing. The next hearing has been set for Aug. 22 in the Rockland District Court.
In the meantime, Young will be kept in custody at a juvenile facility to ensure he'll appear at future court appearances and "to prevent the juvenile from inflicting bodily harm on others," Judge Eric Walker ruled Friday.
Moving forward, Lunt wants to help the healing process by remembering Stewart as a "true ray of sunshine."
"She was a force to be reckoned with," Lunt said, noting that her radiant energy will live on, but a difficult healing process has just begun. "A beautiful individual was just going out for a paddle and never came back. It's not fair."
The Mic Mac family and entire Midcoast Maine community plan to hold a celebration of life on Sunday, Aug. 10. Lobster boats from the surrounding area are invited to take part in a "captain's salute" to honor Stewart.
