WARREN, Maine — A Maine State Prison inmate who was serving a life sentence for murder died Thursday morning due to ongoing health problems, the Maine Department of Corrections announced.
The prisoner was 64-year-old Charles Page, the department’s spokeswoman, Judy Plummer, said in a news release issued late Thursday afternoon.
Plummer said Page began serving his sentence on July 2, 1979. She could not be reached for additional information Thursday evening.
The state medical examiner’s office has been contacted, Plummer said.
According to the Bangor Daily News archives, Page’s murder conviction stemmed from the savage 1978 slaying of Diane Titus, a 29-year-old Dexter mother. Page, a former resident of Levant, savagely stabbed Titus to death as her two small children watched nearby.
During his trial, the state medical examiner testified that Titus bled to death from 55 stab wounds.
An article from April 2000 detailed Page’s two decades of involvement in a prison chaplaincy program. After being involved in the program on and off for several years, Page participated in his first Kairos weekend at the prison. Kairos is an ecumenical retreat which helps strengthen prisoners’ faith.
In an interview with a BDN reporter and photographer, Page spoke about how his involvement with the program transformed his life.
“I’d always known that God was always there. But I never would turn myself over to him. It was a wonderful experience. On that weekend, I felt the Lord very close to me. It was the Holy Spirit just falling all around me. …. Before this took place, I was just living from day to day, not really caring one way or the other about anything or anyone,” he said.
“But the good Lord has changed that feeling in me. He has set me free. I care about myself and others today.”
A criminal history obtained from the State Bureau of Identification showed that Page’s criminal history also included a 1973 conviction for unlawful entry, a misdemeanor.
BDN writer Judy Harrison contributed to this report.
What a shame…Im sure he will be missed.
Yes, there are those of us whom have known Charlie, since he turned his life around while incarcerated, who will miss him; especially his widow.
I do not know who he killed, and my heart goes to his victims family for another reminder of their loss… but regardless I am sorry for your loss and hope he turned his life around and sought forgivness ..although I feel he died where he should have for taking a life your loss is still a painful one I am sure ..god bless you
They usually do turn their life around once in prison with nothing else to do.
one does not simply turn their life around after brutally murdering a woman in front of her two small children. Very convenient to find God after you have committed mortal sins. I hope he rots in hell. His eternity should be worse than the images those children have lived with throughout their lives.
His widow? Did she marry him after he was incarcerated?
I can have no sympathy for somebody who kills a mother in front of her children and honestly, I don’t care if he “turned his life around, or Found God” or anything else. We need a death penalty in Maine.
And there are those of us that grieve every day and feel cheated of the life he took. Can you imagine growing up without your Mom? Your wife…your daughter?
I’m 100% certain that his victims’ children miss her everyday….
good
Finally a sentence seen to full term.
Darn….now THAT…is such a sad story…….
Stairway to heaven, or highway to hell? Which song do you think he is listening too?
“Page was convicted in July 1979 of beating, raping and stabbing Diane
Titus, 29, of Dexter 55 times at her home on April 11, 1978 ” (from another older BDN Article). This state needs a death penalty.
I knew I remembered that name from somewhere. Thanks for the info.
It has. It was just executed.
Kinda makes you wonder if a seat on “old sparky” or living your life out confined behind bars in a small room and dying a slow death is the best punishment. For me personally i would vote for “old sparky.”
I agree. Timothy McVeigh went too easy. He should still be sitting in a cell contemplating the rest of his life behind bars. Bathing when he is told he can. Exercising when he is told he can. Eating when he is given food, or not, etc.
Except it costs the taxpayers an awful lot of money to support keeping these dregs of society sitting behind bars.
Not as much as execution cost. With all the automatic appeals and court costs involved in carrying out an execution, all in the name of insuring that the wrong person isn’t convicted, it has been published many times that it cost more to execute than warehouse them.
I’ll throw a name at you and I want you to tell me if you immediatly remember it.
Sirhan Sirhan.
Our States and our Country can’t afford to keep KEEPING prisonners for life. It’s too costly. Let em rot for a time but then I personally think they should be “executed” in the same manner as their victims….That’s PAY BACK
DEATH PENALTY! Not Rot In Prison….
He’s dead. Execution performed. IMO that is the best sentence in that if you give them a needle or electocute them or hang them, it’s too easy. I sort of like the idea of them rotting in prison for the remainder of their lives.
Plus, there is entirely too many that have been convicted only to be later found to be innocent. Would you feel great about yourself if you were on a jury that convicted someone and later found out they were innocent? How about if they had already been executed? You can’t undo an execution.
John Grisham wrote a great book about just that called “The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town”.
Very hard to decide what is best when your best friend’s daughter is brutally murdered and the killer confesses. Execute or life in prison…
You both make very good points. I favor for some (those found guilty without any doubt remaining as to their guilt, or those admitting to the crime of sound mind) to be executed for committing murder. This is in no doubt a tough debatable topic that has gone on for years. It troubles a good portion of society when those known to have committed horrible heinous crimes are allowed to live a better life out in prison then many of its lifelong working citizens. Society reaches conclusions and develops models each and every day with lives in the balance, and those who take from another who committed no wrong their precious life, deserve to die.
Tobad his vicitim did not get a chance to have a life to turn around!
Bu, bye
Thanks for that link, good site to know!!!
thats where i dug up the story about the 13 year old
kid that was killed by fireworks in 1954/augusta
hard to feel a sense of loss for someone who raped, slashed and killed a woman.
I feel bad for his victim and her family. Her two children grew up without a mother.
How unbelievably rotten this guy was! Good riddance! I hope this offers Diane’s family some much needed closure…Anywho, I saw the headlines for this on the homepage and got overly excited. I was hoping the inmate was going to be Evan Altiero but thats too good to be true. Plus the murderer wasn’t convicted as one unfortunately. PLUS he doesn’t even get to serve his 15 days for killing someone in jail! Corrections? Wow. Thanks Susan Sparaco. Thanks for nothing! You put the justice system to shame.
Even Altiero got 15 days for killing his passenger…..15 days….pathetic.
I would say that he has squared up with society. He took a life and the State took the rest of his life away from him. It’s not exactly a fair system we work with here, but the piper has been paid. And if the man truly repented for his crimes, than allow him to rest in peace instead of condemning him.
He took one life and the innocence of two children–how do you suppose he squares up against that?
Because he paid for his crimes within the guidelines set by the State of Maine. I will not sit here and rejoice with everyone else and call him “scum.” We live in a very messed up society, and sometimes it’s not completely fair, but then again neither is life. His sentence was to spend the rest of his natural life in prison, and from what I have read here, looks like he did. Sentence paid, all should be forgiven.
I’m. Sorry but three meals a day, two of those with salad bar and tap soda fountain, cable TV, heat, A/C, free medical, dental, a gym, weight room base ball diamond, basket ball courts, hand ball, free collage class….that’s right collage for free, how much did your education cost you? Go to prison, work hard and get a collage education, and pay nothing, yes they are both gone, but she and only she paid the piper, Charlie got it all for free, ya that is justice, and wait till you find out what he cost the state in his last years for medical care!
Your moniker suits you, perfectly.
This guy should have been executed rather than be allowed to live out his life. Too bad that Maine lacks a death penalty.
funny how when they get closer to death they find god.
now you are just being stupid.Its not his familys fault for what he has done.
in other cultures, family members are responsible for each other’s actions
you dont like multiculturalism?
((+_+))
the usa is a multicultural country
who are we to say which culture norms are acceptable or not in the usa?
Sentence complete….NEXT
actually, life expectancy is 74, he croaked at 64…. so he still owes
another 10 years
Justice served.
And how much did we pay to keep this guy alive for something so hideous?
I am curious about something…Maybe some of you can help me out here…
Inasmuch as self-righteousness seems to be the way of the world these days, most of these comments seem almost pedestrian…Yet, there seems to be a strong thread of belief in eternal Hell…
I am wondering who among the believers in Hell also profess belief in Jesus Christ as Lord…Perhaps I can build an Op Ed piece out of the responses…
Thank you for your help…
Stan Moody
Certain philosophies suggest that Hell does not exist without Heaven, evil cannot exist without good etc.
I believe in God as a loving Father who can and does forgive His children and I do believe in leaving a man’s final judgement up to Him.
If i had to chose only one who really exists: god/heaven or the devil/he55, i chose the devil/he55
I actually find it rather strange in 2012 with science as advanced as it is that people still believe in any supernatural stuff.
While still in college, I was a camp counselor at a church summer camp. One of the young teens said she felt there was no hell after death that hell was here on earth and that everyone goes to heaven. That has stuck with me over the years.
I have yet to add my comment but in reply to yours, YES I DO! I know that he right now has to face the Lord as well as Diane. I knew this family and there is alot to the crime that was not told. It is way past time for this coward to answer for his actions.
Gee, it’s Stan Moody, so Stan, A beloved prisoner dies at that big old nasty prison, and your only comment has to deal with hell? Hhmmmmm kind of funny, just saying
Good. now the state can stop supporting him.
what’s unfortunate is according to the holy book, if he’s truly repent for his sins, if he truly did accept the lord and faith, he’ll be in heaven. with the one he killed. bit too much for me to accept with right there..
I support the death penalty in cases such as this. My belief is that it may serve as a deterrence. Spending the rest of your life in a cell is probably very punishing. I am more concerned for the victims.
Sounds like this guy was obviously guilty. But, what about the ones in prison who have been wrongly convicted?
The Innocence Project has now proven over 300 folks were wrongly convicted through DNA evidence alone.
It’s also proven that several of the convicts who have received the death penalty were actually innocent. Some thing to think about
Want the death penalty? Then vote for it next time it comes up. How many votes have been taken on this subject in the last 13 years and it keeps losing?