The Belfast man accused of killing his wife in Readfield earlier this year is alleged to have attacked her and his mother with a fire poker before he fled the scene and eventually confessed to police, according to newly released court documents about the Feb. 19 slaying.
Samuel Whittemore, 34, was charged with murdering his wife, 32-year-old Margaux Whittemore, after police found her body outside his parent’s home on Giles Road in Readfield, where the couple had been staying for several days. He was indicted by a Kennebec County grand jury on March 19 and is now undergoing a competency evaluation while being held in a psychiatric facility.
On Wednesday, the court system unsealed an affidavit that a detective from the Maine State Police filed about the events leading up to Whittemore’s arrest. It provides grisly new details about his alleged crimes, including that he may have been suffering a mental breakdown when they happened.
Whittemore’s attorney, Walter McKee, declined to comment on the allegations.
According to the affidavit, the attacks happened while Samuel and Margaux Whittemore were visiting his parents for several days at their Readfield home.
The couple had gotten married less than six months earlier, after they both had led globe-trotting lives but decided to relocate to Maine. They were living at a home at 20 River Avenue in Belfast.
Samuel had previously worked a series of high-profile engineering jobs, including for Elon Musk’s SpaceX, while also captaining his own 50-foot sailing boat around the world. Margaux, whose maiden name was Nguyen, had grown up in France, and they’d met while she was working as a yoga instructor in French Polynesia.
Samuel Whittemore’s mother, Darcy, told police that the attacks had happened early on the morning of Feb. 19, after Margaux Whittemore reported to her in-laws that her husband was unable to sleep.
Later, Samuel Whittemore allegedly followed his wife downstairs in a “rage” and chased her and his mother around the home while hitting them with the fire poker, the affidavit said.
Margaux Whittemore then fled outside the home, with her husband in pursuit, while Darcy Whittemore ran upstairs to a bedroom and called 911, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit does not offer a motive for why Samuel Whittemore allegedly killed his wife. But it notes that police found her nude body in the driveway and that an autopsy found trauma to the back of her head as well as stab wounds, abrasions and bruises on her body. The medical examiner determined that the manner of her death was homicide due to sharp and blunt force injuries.
At some point, Samuel Whittemore allegedly returned into the home and found his mother upstairs after she’d dialed 911. He allegedly choked her, struck with the poker and put his knee or foot on her chest so she had trouble breathing, according to the affidavit.
“Please stop it Sam. What are you doing?” she allegedly yelled at him, according to a 911 dispatcher who overheard the conversation on the open line. Darcy Whittemore also told officials that her son was having a mental breakdown.
Samuel Whittemore then fled out of a window after his father, Henry Whittemore, returned from a trip away from the home and confronted him, according to the affidavit.
When members of the Winthrop Police Department and Maine State Police arrived at the scene, they found Samuel Whittemore standing nude in the road, allegedly yelling things including “murder” and “1776,” according to the affidavit.
They were able to secure him in an ambulance and allegedly overheard him say, “I murdered my wife and mom,” according to the affidavit.
The inside of the home was in disarray, with blood on the floors and walls. In one spot, “911” was written in blood on a wall, according to the affidavit. Darcy Whittemore was still hiding under a bed when police arrived, and she was taken to a hospital for treatment.
After police detained Whittemore, he allegedly told them, “I can’t believe I killed my wife,” and “I can’t confront reality right now.”
The courts have so far found Whittemore incompetent to stand trial as he undergoes a mental evaluation. His next court appearance will be a dispositional conference scheduled for May 29.