Kimberly Neptune had nearly 500 stab wounds and cuts when a relative found her dead and wrapped in a blanket in her Perry apartment in April, according to a police affidavit.
Neptune’s murder was the sixth in Washington County in as many months, dating to November 2021. Donnell Dana, 39 and Kailie Brackett, 38, both of Perry, have been charged with murder in the killing.
According to a police affidavit that was made public on Wednesday, witnesses told investigators that in the days before the April 21 killing, Brackett had publicly accused Neptune of stealing money. On the day they allegedly went to Neptune’s apartment, Brackett and Dana had planned to rob Neptune of 300 Xanax pills and money.
Left to right, Kailie A. Brackett, 38, or Perry. Donnell J. Dana, 39, of Perry. Credit: Courtesy of the Washington County Jail
Brackett was identified as a suspect after she posted photos online of herself wearing clothing similar to a suspect seen on a neighbor’s security camera near where Neptune lived on Thunder Road. Neptune, a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, lived in tribal housing.
Police interviewed Dana, who has a son with Brackett. He told police he lived with Neptune, 43, for a couple of years, but that he moved out in 2021. He said he slept on the couch, and they were never in a serious relationship, if at all. Dana said he takes medications for seizures and could not recall where he was on April 21, according to the affidavit.
When police told Dana his blood had been found in Neptune’s stairwell, where bloody footprints had been left behind, Dana said he had bled in Neptune’s apartment when he lived there the previous year. But police found scratch marks on his chest, and marks on his lower legs and right ear, as if he had recently been in a physical altercation during the interview.
Dana denied killing Neptune, police said.
A witness told police that Brackett told her that it was meant to be a drug robbery in a conversation the day after the killing. Brackett told the witness she and Neptune were “seeing each other.” She called Neptune on April 20 to arrange a night together at Neptune’s apartment and arranged for a babysitter, the witness said.
Brackett showed up at Neptune’s apartment with Dana, the witness told police, but Neptune objected to his being there. Dana then allegedly attacked Neptune. While Dana was fighting with Neptune, Brackett allegedly grabbed items in the apartment including jewelry, money and Xanax, police said.
The witness told police that Brackett allegedly told her “Kim put up a good fight.” She also stabbed Neptune, according to the witness.
In all, Neptune was stabbed 484 times in her legs, stomach, neck and head, according to an autopsy conducted by the state medical examiner’s office. Her brother, who has a key to her apartment, found her dead on the floor of her bedroom, wrapped in a blanket, when he went to check on her at around 8 p.m. on April 21.
The same witness told police she also spoke with Dana a few days later, who allegedly told her he had killed Neptune and that it was “a fight that got out of control.”
Brackett and Dana were indicted on murder charges in May. As of Thursday they were still being held without bail at the Washington County Jail in Machias.
Brackett has a prior criminal record in Maine that includes multiple convictions on theft and forgery charges between 2004 and 2012, as well convictions for burglary, unlawful possession of drugs, and trafficking in prison contraband.
In 2016, she was convicted on multiple charges after robbing a convenience store on Route 1A in Holden while she had her 2-year-old son in the car. In that case she was convicted of robbery, eluding a police officer, trafficking in prison contraband, endangering the welfare of a child, unlawful possession of drugs and theft.
Dana has a prior criminal record that includes convictions for unlawful possession of drugs in 2004 and 2012.
Correction: An earlier version of this report misstated Donnell Dana’s age and a year when Dana was convicted of drug possession. An earlier version of this report also incorrectly spelled Kailie Brackett’s first name.