People are messed up

This happened not to far away from where I live



By Beurmond Banville, Of the NEWS Staff

CARIBOU — The pretty, young night supervisor at the Tim Hortons restaurant was savagely beaten and left to die in the employee bathroom Sunday night while her alleged assailant waited on customers at the counter and drive-through window, according to a court document.

After Erin Sperrey, 20, of Presque Isle was beaten to death, her body was dragged from the bloody bathroom of the Bennett Drive doughnut shop and placed in the back seat of her car.

Shortly after midnight, her body was found by police in the abandoned car 120 miles south on Interstate 95 near Lincoln.

The state medical examiner’s office said Tuesday that an autopsy determined Sperrey had died of “multiple traumatic injuries.�

According to a court affidavit presented Tuesday morning to Justice E. Allen Hunter in Aroostook County Superior Court, Christopher Shumway, 19, of Caribou told police he had beaten the young woman with his hands and feet and strangled her, leaving her to die in the bathroom while he waited on customers.

The court document points to robbery as a motive for the slaying, although police would not speculate on that possibility. Shumway admitted taking the cash box from the restaurant, according to the affidavit. Another employee verified that $1,200, including currency and rolled coins, was missing from the employee office.

Shumway made his initial court appearance on charges of murder and violation of probation. He was ordered held without bail.

A hearing to determine bail, if any, will be held within five days. During Tuesday’s court session, which lasted about 10 minutes, Shumway was told he wasn’t expected to enter a plea and that he shouldn’t make any statements. Justice Hunter also told Shumway that an attorney would be appointed to represent him.

Shumway tried to hang himself while police waited outside his motel room on Monday in Bangor, where he was apprehended, according to the affidavit. Jim Foss, Aroostook County Jail administrator, said Tuesday afternoon he could not say whether Shumway was on a suicide watch while in jail because of the confidentiality of medical records.

Aroostook County Sheriff James Madore said later that Shumway is “being watched closely.�
In court

During the hearing, Sperrey’s parents, Johna Lovely of Presque Isle and Kevin Sperrey of Mapleton were supported by 22 family members and friends. Lovely, with the hands of her husband, Kim Lovely, around her shoulders, sobbed and cried during the short hearing, her face showing the strain of the previous 36 hours.

Kevin Sperrey, sitting in a side seat, also showed the strain of losing his daughter. His face was drawn and flushed red.

“She was just a great person,� Amanda Sperrey, Erin Sperrey’s sister, said outside the courtroom. “I just don’t know how anyone can do something like this to another person.�

No family members apparently were in court to support Shumway.

Shumway, his hands and feet shackled, was subdued during his initial appearance. Dressed in Aroostook County Jail garb of gray T-shirt and pants, he was nearly inaudible when he answered “yes� when asked if he understood the charge against him. His dark hair was cropped within a half-inch of his scalp.

The young man stood motionless in front of Justice Hunter, lifting his eyes only a couple of times from the floor and his canvas prison shoes.

Security in the courtroom was tight. Six plainclothes detectives stood in the courtroom, while three uniformed Aroostook County deputy sheriffs stood next to Shumway and between him and the exit from the courtroom.

Lt. Dennis Appleton, head of the Maine State Police Criminal Investigation Division in northern Maine, said just before the court hearing that there was nothing new in the investigation of the case.
Both Sperrey and Shumway had been working at Tim Hortons for several months since late summer. She was the night shift supervisor, and he was a staff member.

Shumway was on probation in connection with a misdemeanor charge of harassment by telephone sometime last year. The charge didn’t involve Sperrey, according to authorities. Shumway lived with his mother in Caribou.

Sperrey, who was unmarried, was a lifelong resident of the Washburn-Mapleton area and was living in Presque Isle.


She was described by a former teacher as a warm person who worked hard in life.

“She always had a smile and was a very warm person,� Dave Bartlett, director of the Alternative Education School at Presque Isle High School, remembered Tuesday morning. “She was one of our success stories here. She was self-motivated, a very hard worker,� he said. “She worked with prekindergarten children during her senior year on a program she developed, and the kids loved her.�
She took a college-level course on childhood development to help herself with that program, he said. Sperrey graduated from the school in 2002.

He said her death was hard on faculty who knew her and on her classmates, some of whom had called Bartlett since the news of her death surfaced Monday morning.

The affidavit
The police affidavit filed by state police Detective Darryl J. Pelletier describes Shumway’s alleged killing of Sperrey.

Shumway reportedly told his grisly story to state police Detectives Anna Fizel and Jay Peary after he was arrested at 6:45 a.m. Monday at Motel 6 on outer Hammond Street in Bangor.

According to the affidavit, Shumway’s attack started when Sperrey went into the shop’s freezer during the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift. Shumway followed her, pushed her down, and Sperrey struck her head.
He took Sperrey’s car keys from her before they left the freezer. Outside the freezer, Shumway told police he apologized for his actions and gave Sperrey back her keys. Sperrey said she had to leave, and the two struggled. Sperrey was screaming, according to the affidavit.

Shumway told police he started to strangle Sperrey: “She was fighting for her life,� the document stated.
“The fight moved into the bathroom. Shumway kicked Sperrey in the head, mouth and chest. Blood came out of Sperrey’s mouth,� the statement reads.

“Shumway left Sperrey in the bathroom to wait on customers at the counter and drive-through. When Shumway left Sperrey she was breathing and when Shumway returned, Sperrey was not breathing. Shumway dragged Sperrey out to her car and put her in the back seat,� according to the statement.
Shumway then took the store’s cash box from the office, drove to Fort Fairfield for gas and cigarettes and continued to drive south.

Crime unravels
The murder and robbery started to unravel hours before Shumway lost control of Sperrey’s car on I-95 just north of Lincoln and ended up in the median strip down a 20-foot embankment.
Shortly before 8 p.m., Corey Searles and his girlfriend, Laura Cyr, stopped at the drive-through of the Caribou restaurant. Getting no response at both drive-through windows, Searles entered the doughnut shop and called out without getting a response. Cyr contacted her father, Joe Cyr, a retired U.S. Border Patrol agent.

Joe Cyr called the Caribou Police Department, and Officer Douglas Bell searched the restaurant, finding no one. He observed blood in the bathroom and the disarray of the office and then called restaurant manager Marie Possocco, who ascertained that $1,200 was missing. She told police that Sperrey and Shumway were working the shift.

Later, state police Detective Joshua Haines and Trooper Chuck Michaud found blood splattered on the floor by the drive-through window and on the floor behind the counter in the main lobby. Blood was found on the floor of the rear storage area hallway that leads to the employee bathroom, on the bathroom floor, on the wall under the sink and on the toilet seat.

“The blood appeared to be a high velocity, very fine, spatter particles,� according to the affidavit. The investigators also found footprints in the blood on the bathroom floor.

The detectives found drag marks on the bathroom floor and in the rear hallway leading to the rear exit of the building. A crumpled contact lens was found on the bathroom floor along with a single silver earring. Inside the freezer, they found bread rolls on the floor and a silver earring matching the one in the bathroom.

A friend of Shumway’s, Darlene Dubois, told police that Shumway had talked about robbing a place and using the money to flee to Massachusetts.

Trooper Barry Meserve found the lifeless body of a female in the rear seat of Sperrey’s 1999 green Kia at about 12:30 a.m. Monday in the southbound lane of I-95 at mile 231 in Township 2 Range 8.
“The female’s face showed signs of a severe beating,� according to the affidavit.

Police learned Monday that after Shumway left the restaurant, he headed south in Sperrey’s car, losing control of the vehicle in a snowstorm on I-95. A Dedham family driving home from Presque Isle picked up Shumway and gave him a lift to Bangor.

Other detectives with the Bangor Police Department and the state police found out that Shumway had registered at Motel 6 at 2:23 a.m. Monday, just 15 minutes before police inquired. He paid in cash, including rolled coins.

The room was kept under surveillance until 5:08 a.m. when police tried to make contact with the young man. Getting no response and concerned about his well-being, the police made a forced entry.
Shumway was sitting on the bed wearing a shirt and pants, smoking a cigarette, and he had his hands in the air.

He told police they needed a warrant. Police left, keeping the room under surveillance. They returned at 6:45 a.m. and arrested him for Sperrey’s murder.

In the interim, according to the affidavit, Shumway tried to hang himself by wrapping the telephone cord around his neck and tying it to a clothes rack. He also inflicted superficial wounds on his forearms with a box cutter.

Funeral services for Sperrey will be held Friday afternoon at a Presque Isle funeral home.
In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations to establish a fund for businesses to use to install security devices to protect young people working at night for them.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.





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