CALAIS, Maine — The 65-year-old Bangor man charged with killing an 18-year-old Washington County woman in a decades-old cold case pleaded not guilty in Calais District Court on Friday.
Raymond Brown, formerly of Pembroke, was indicted Thursday on a charge of murder in the death of Linda Maxwell, who was last seen in the Calais area on Aug. 23, 1984, and whose body was later found on the shoreline of the St. Croix River.
During Brown’s arraignment hearing on Friday afternoon, District Court Judge David Mitchell told the suspect that he has been charged with a serious offense and could be sentenced from 25 years to life in prison if he is found guilty.
Appearing via a Zoom live stream, Assistant Attorney General Suzanne Russell asked in court that Brown be held without bail, which Mitchell granted.
“The indictment alleges that on or about August 24, 1984, in Washington County that you intentionally or knowingly caused the death of Linda Maxwell,” Mitchell explained to Brown, who was appearing in court remotely from the Washington County Jail in Machias. “Also that you engaged in depraved indifference to human life and that caused her death.”
Mitchell assigned attorneys Steven Smith and Connor Herrold to represent Brown. The case has been assigned to Superior Court Justice Harold Stewart, Mitchell said.
In August 1984, Owen Moholland of Red Beach discovered Maxwell’s naked body on the shore near the Robbinston Boat Landing five days after she was reported missing, according to police at the time.
The state chief medical examiner ruled her death a drowning, Maine State Police Detective Charles Love said in 1984.
According to Bangor Daily News archives, Maxwell was the daughter of the late Cleveland and Nancy Maxwell.
She was out with friends that last time she was seen, according to BDN news accounts.
Following an extensive investigation by Maine State Police, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the Calais Police Department, the case remained unsolved for years. But a more recent expanded investigation by the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit led state Attorney General Aaron Frey to have the case presented to a Washington County grand jury.
The court has not released records detailing how investigators identified Brown as a suspect so many years later.
A future hearing date was not set.