BELFAST, Maine — The woman accused in January of intentionally burning her 6-year-old son’s hand on a wood stove died in May and all charges in the case have been dropped, an official from the Waldo County District Attorney’s Office confirmed Tuesday.
Michele Dunworth, 30, who recently had moved to Thorndike from an out-of-state address, died on Mother’s Day. No further details were available.
This winter, her son’s teacher asked him in school what had happened to his hand, after spotting a bandage covering what appeared to be a second or third-degree burn, according to the initial report from the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office.
The boy told school staff that his mother had put his hand against a wood stove to discipline him after he had been playing around it with his sister, who fell and burned herself.
School staff contacted the Regional School Unit 3 resource officer, who spoke to the boy and heard the same recounting of events. Then he spoke to Dunworth, who denied it, Lt. Jason Trundy told the BDN in January.
Dunworth reportedly told police that the boy pushed the girl and they both got burned on the stove. But after police spoke with the 7-year-old sister, they heard an identical version of events and decided there was probable cause to charge Dunworth.
She was charged with domestic violence assault and endangering the welfare of a child, and was freed on $500 cash bail. Then-Waldo County Deputy District Attorney Eric Walker told the BDN that because Dunworth had recently moved to Thorndike, the children did not have many relatives in the area. Because of that, the children were not removed from Dunworth’s home.
However, Dunworth and the family were to be monitored by a person from Volunteers of America, a group that contracts with the Waldo County Jail to supervise some people before or after their trials.