Practically 5 months since Paula Johnson was discovered useless in her dwelling on Leighton Level Highway in Pembroke, a suspect has been charged within the alleged homicide.
Rebecca Moores, previously referred to as Rebecca Cushing, was arrested Wednesday throughout a site visitors cease in Pembroke — months after her identify got here up as a suspect in Johnson’s dying.
Johnson, 53, is certainly one of 10 individuals to have been killed in Washington County since January 2020, and certainly one of six to have been allegedly murdered since November of final yr. Hers was the final of these deaths to end in an arrest.
Moores, 42, has a previous felony historical past, in line with state information. In 2012, she was convicted of felony theft, and two years later she was convicted of drunken driving and aggravated assault.
In 2015, she was charged with 4 misdemeanors together with illegal possession of medicine, escape, refusing to undergo arrest and violating situations of launch, however all these costs ended up being dismissed, in line with her felony historical past report.
She was a passenger in a truck concerned in a deadly crash in Pembroke on Jan. 5, 2020, however didn’t face any costs linked with that incident.
Moores is predicted to make her first look on the homicide cost at 1 p.m. on Friday in Washington County Superior Court docket in Machias, in line with Shannon Moss, spokesperson for Maine State Police.
Police have declined to launch particulars about how they assume Johnson was killed, saying solely on the time that the circumstances had been “suspicious.” The dying was dominated a murder by the state medical expert’s workplace. A police affidavit, which is predicted to comprise particulars concerning the killing, has been impounded by a decide, stopping its contents from turning into public.
Trevor Maintain, a Pembroke resident who serves in town’s faculty and conservation committees, stated native individuals are relieved that somebody has been charged with Johnson’s dying.
“Everybody was sort of ready,” Maintain stated. “It was beginning to really feel like ‘is somebody going to get away with it?’ The entire city has been holding its breath.”
Maintain stated the dearth of an arrest was unsettling, and the dying of a neighborhood teenager on June 28 has solely added to that feeling.
That dying, at a house on Outdated County Highway, is being investigated by each Maine State Police and the Washington County Sheriff’s Workplace, in line with the Machias Valley Information Observer. Moss stated it’s believed to be the results of “a medical occasion,” however has not launched extra particulars about it.
Since Johnson’s dying, the yard round her home — 2 1/2 miles down on the west facet of scenic Leighton Level Highway — has not been maintained, serving as a visible reminder of her unresolved killing.
A white cape with black trim has sat unattended, with tall grass rising unchecked within the yard and shades and curtains pulled shut, blocking the view. Plastic yellow tape that reads “POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS” has remained wrapped round bushes between the home and the highway, left over from when detectives combed the property in February.
The alleged homicide was not the primary time legislation enforcement has responded to Johnson’s home, although police haven’t linked Moores to any prior incidents there. Locals have been involved about obvious unlawful drug exercise on the home.
Fifteen months in the past, in an incident that isn’t believed to be linked to the dying, three individuals pressured their approach into the home and stole 1000’s of {dollars} in money from two individuals inside, certainly one of whom was Johnson. Such robberies have develop into extra widespread in japanese Maine in recent times because the unlawful drug commerce has develop into endemic within the space, usually drawing sellers from out of state who arrange store in a neighborhood buyer’s dwelling.
Johnson instructed police on the time that her son Joshua Carter and two different individuals broke into the home on the morning of April 18, 2021, and tried to tie her up, however she resisted.
“She stated Josh then went upstairs they usually tied up her ‘home visitor’ and stole all his cash earlier than working out the entrance door,” Washington County Deputy Sheriff Ashley Seiler wrote in a abstract report.
The so-called home visitor, who stated he was from New York, instructed the deputy that Carter and one other man sure his arms with a cable tie, hit his legs with a baseball bat after which stole all his cash.
“[He] stated he had about $10,000 for college and college provides,” Seiler wrote within the report.
The person instructed the deputy he didn’t have private identification with him and declined to fill out an announcement, Seiler added.
Carter and the 2 different intruders — Tabitha Carroll, 29, of Nice Level and Edward Sockabasin, 40, of Perry — fled the scene in a pickup truck however had been chased down and arrested by responding police.
All three later pleaded responsible to housebreaking and different costs and had been ordered to be incarcerated for phrases starting from six months for Sockabasin to 6 years for Carter, in line with court docket paperwork. Carter, 32, of Eastport additionally was ordered to pay almost $9,500 in restitution.
