ABBOT, Maine — The father of the Parkman woman found dead in her home in early June said Piscataquis County Sheriff John Goggin should “resign or retire” for publicly sharing details about her homicide in a recent television interview.
Vance Ginn, father of Stephanie Ginn Gebo, described statements made by Goggin as “way off base.”
“He said things that he had no way of knowing,” Ginn said Wednesday afternoon. “He said things nobody knows [about the homicide].”
Ginn also called on the sheriff to issue a public apology to the slain woman’s family.
Robert Burton, 38, also known as Robert G. Elliot, is facing a murder charge in connection with the death of Ginn Gebo, a single mother of two whose body was discovered by her children in their Parkman home on June 5. Burton has remained on the run from police since and is the subject of a manhunt now in its sixth week.
Goggin, who has worked in law enforcement for more than 40 years and was first elected sheriff in 1990, told WVII TV on July 9 that Burton was wounded by Ginn Gebo before he turned the gun on her.
“As he was climbing through the window that night, his would-be victim had a handgun and she shot at him,” Goggin said in the interview with the Bangor TV station. “He wasn’t armed at that time. She wounded him slightly, they got in a tussle over the gun and he just lost it. He got the gun away from her and he shot her and he killed her.”
Goggin also told the TV station that Burton may have planned to kidnap Ginn Gebo.
Ginn said the sheriff could not know those facts unless he interviewed Burton, who was last spotted in Guilford on July 6. He said his grandchildren were upstairs the night their mother died and slept through the fatal incident.
Messages left for Goggin seeking comment Wednesday were not returned.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Marchese said Friday that Goggin “should not have said what he did.” She declined to comment about the accuracy of what Goggin said in the interview.
Goggin said Friday he could not comment further on the investigation.
“When he said [Burton] went in unarmed, nobody knows that,” Ginn said of Goggin’s statement. “When he said [Burton’s] intent was to kidnap, nobody knows that.
“Let’s face it, common sense would tell anybody that even if [Burton] went there to kidnap her, he wouldn’t go there without some kind of control — a knife or a gun, or something,” Ginn said. “[Goggin] went off and said statements and nobody can prove them. It’s just his assumption. He said [Burton] lost it. He lost it back on the day my daughter kicked him out. This was all premeditated. This was planned from Day One.”
Ginn Gebo died a week after she broke off the relationship with Burton, which also was the day after Burton’s probation for previous domestic violence crimes ended.
“Robert was the intruder and my daugher was the victim and [Goggin] almost turned it around,” Ginn said. “He said how she shot him. She was so afraid of him she was sleeping with the weapon.”
Ginn said Maine State Police called him at 10:30 p.m. on the day the interview aired to inform the family of Goggin’s “blunder.” Police also made a similar call to his daughter’s mother, he said. State police spokesman Stephen McCausland said Wednesday he could not confirm those calls were made.
“It hurt my family and it hurt the case,” Ginn said. “He was almost defending [Burton] by the statements he made. They were atrocious.”
The search for Burton has involved Maine State Police, the Maine Warden Service, Piscataquis County and other law enforcement, and Ginn said he has been pleased with their efforts to find his daughter’s killer. That was until Goggin made his statements.
“He can’t keep going on like this,” Ginn said. “He needs to be on the same page as the state police. His officers are working well with them. They’re brothers and they’re all supposed to work together.”
Ginn said it is clear what needs to happen next.
“I think he should resign or retire,” Ginn said of Goggin. “He needs to retire. He needs to hand over the reins to [Deputy Sheriff] Bob Young. We thought for sure that was the call to say that this was the end, but it wasn’t. That whole thing was just heartbreaking to my family.”
A GoFundMe account has been set up for Ginn Gebo’s children and a separate GoFundMe account has been set up to raise reward money for Burton’s capture.