No person anticipated their summertime on the lavish, peaceful financial institutions of Crawford Fish pond, Maine, to be overthrown by an outrageous murder. That tranquility was ruined this July when camp newbie Sunlight “Sunny” Stewart had actually gone paddleboarding– and never ever returned.
Authorities located the 48-year-old suffocated and bludgeoned to fatality the following early morning. A two-week search for an awesome followed. It was much more surprising when that search quit– and authorities had the ability to make an apprehension, and the suspect became a 17-year-old staying at the camp.
Mic Mac Camping area proprietor Katharine Lunt remembers the consequences of Sunlight Stewart’s fatality.
ABC Information
In her initial meeting considering that cops billed Deven Youthful with Stewart’s murder on Friday, Mic Mac Camping area proprietor Katharine Lunt described to ABC Information the scary that engulfed her ideal edge of country Maine considering that July 2, and exactly how increasingly driven she’s been to secure it.
” It’s not an area where these points take place,” Lunt claimed. “It’s not an area where we’re suspicious of each various other,” she claimed, defining the premises as a “place for everybody.”
Lunt initially satisfied Stewart at the start of Might when she signed up for a seasonal campground with a pal.
” Sunny was extremely delighted to be on the lake and paddleboard,” Lunt claimed.
Prior to America’s birthday celebration, Stewart established out on the fish pond for a peaceful night swim and paddle. She left her bag in her vehicle, its home windows open, Lunt claimed. Prior to twelve o’clock at night, Lunt discovered on her protection electronic camera system that Stewart’s close friend was looking the beachfront with a flashlight– triggering Lunt to examine it out.
Sunlight “Sunny” Stewart was located dead after she went paddleboarding on a lake in Maine, and her fatality has actually been ruled as a murder, authorities claimed.
Kim Ware
Stewart’s board and paddle were missing out on. She was no place to be located. Lunt called neighborhood cops, and the search followed.
” We initially believed that perhaps she was harmed,” Lunt claimed. “Perhaps she had actually been struck by a watercraft. We had no concept why she had not returned.”
State and neighborhood companies and also citizens assisted seek Stewart by land, water and air with the assistance of a drone. Thick haze remained on the financial institutions of the 600-acre fish pond. 2 neighborhood citizens located a blue paddleboard– which after that assisted guide cops’s focus to the location where her body would certainly be located.
As cops brushed with proof every day at the camping site, Lunt was identified to assist fracture the instance. She brushed over video footage from her durable monitoring device around camp, with an overall of 16 protection cams, that authorities state remained in truth secret to the examination.
” I was searching for an unfamiliar person, someone unusual,” Lunt claimed. “Definitely no one was searching for a kid. We were searching for a grownup.”
It produced an environment of uncertainty, according to Lunt.
” When we really did not understand what had actually taken place, and we really felt there was an unfamiliar person among us, so each day I was up at dawn till sundown at eviction of the camping site, ensuring that we were not enabling any type of unfamiliar people in our area,” she claimed.
Lunt assisted rally campers to use their video footage if it may have something, and also offer their DNA.
” I was stressed with discovering that did this– due to the fact that it was distressing for everyone,” she claimed.
On the night she went missing out on, Sunlight Stewart established out on the fish pond for a swim.
ABC Information
One boy sticking with his moms and dads at Mic Mac that summertime appeared anxious to assist, also: a 17-year-old constantly providing to assist others with their backyard job or loosened pet dogs. He would certainly also made timber crafts to offer to various other campers, Lunt claimed. He suched as to head out on his little watercraft.
Deven Youthful had something to reveal cops that may assist, Lunt remembered Youthful claimed. He took a private investigator and the warden out on the water.
” He offered, he claimed he had some details, and he took them in the contrary instructions of where Sunny was located,” Lunt claimed. “He had actually claimed he had something to reveal them, and took them out on the lake on basically a fruitless.”
For 2 weeks, the suspect was “acting entirely typical,” Lunt claimed. “He imitated absolutely nothing ever before occurred.” She trembled her head. “It’s haunting. He was out any person’s radar.”
Lunt thinks that maybe Young “claimed something” that captured detectives’ focus and made them inspect him much more carefully. After speaking to him for a pair much more hours, cops left, just to return that night and head straight for the Youthful family members’s website. He was jailed the night of July 16.
Youthful has actually been billed with Stewart’s murder and is presently captive at an adolescent apprehension center. State district attorneys have actually relocated to bill him as a grown-up, according to a speaker for the Maine Attorney general of the United States’s workplace. That demand has actually not yet been ruled on.
At his initial court look Friday, Youthful got in a rejection on the fee which will certainly be attended to at a later hearing. His lawyer had no remark.
Crawford Fish Pond in Union, Maine, July 9, 2025.
Robert F. Bukaty/AP
As cops went to the Youngs’ door the evening of his apprehension, Lunt read any type of monitoring video footage she can locate that may provide a hint.
” Simply assuming, no other way, this can not be occurring,” Lunt claimed. “After that I returned to monitoring cams to see where he went to the moment [of the killing]– and those monitoring video clips suggested he got on the lake at the time.”
Youthful went back to land prior to it was dark on the evening of the murder, according to Lunt’s monitoring video footage.
Though Lunt really did not understand Youthful well, she recognizes one point: she never ever saw him and Stewart connect.
Youthful’s family members had actually initial camped at Mic Mac throughout the 2024 summertime period, and returned this year. His grandparents had a website formerly and he had actually seen them often, also. Stewart had actually just been there for a couple of days.
” They had not gone across courses,” she claimed. “I believe she went to the incorrect location at the incorrect time.”
Lunt remembers Youthful as maybe an “unpleasant child,” yet respectful without any specific warnings she can remember.
” We have a great deal of children, and they do a great deal of points– yet nothing that would certainly make you believe that any type of youngster was mosting likely to murder someone right here,” she claimed. “I have absolutely nothing good to state. It’s revolting.”
At his initial court look on Friday, Youthful got in a rejection– a step-by-step action contesting the accusations– and debates will certainly be listened to at a later hearing. The following hearing has actually been established for Aug. 22 in the Rockland Area Court.
In the meanwhile, Youthful will certainly be maintained in custodianship at an adolescent center to guarantee he’ll show up at future court looks and “to stop the adolescent from causing physical damage on others,” Court Eric Pedestrian ruled Friday.
Progressing, Lunt wishes to assist the recovery procedure by keeping in mind Stewart as a “real ray of sunlight.”
” She was a pressure to be considered,” Lunt claimed, keeping in mind that her glowing power will certainly reside on, yet a hard recovery procedure has actually simply started. “A stunning person was simply pursuing a paddle and never ever returned. It’s unfair.”
The Mic Mac family members and whole Midcoast Maine area strategy to hold an event of life on Sunday, Aug. 10. Lobster watercrafts from the bordering location are welcomed to participate in a “captain’s salute” to recognize Stewart.
