The Midcoast Villager has obtained an audio interview by the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office with the parents of murder suspect Deven Young, which offers more details about his mental health challenges and violent behavior in the years leading up to the death of Sunshine “Sunny” Stewart.
Waldo County turned over a redacted audio recording Tuesday. It was the final piece of information ordered by a state judge to be released to the Villager, which took the county to court after it denied a Freedom of Access request for the records.
The recording is of a January 2023 visit by Detective Sgt. Merl Reed to Young’s home in Frankfort. The names of the two adults are not included in the audio, but it is obvious they are Young’s parents.
The detective went to the home after Young was seen at school with a bruised eye. The man in the audio said he and Young got in a scuffle when the teen became aggravated and was swearing and yelling in the man’s face.
The two adults discussed how they have sought services for Young, who spent two stints at Acadia Hospital in Bangor — a psychiatric facility — and how he did well in its day program. They said he had been on a waitlist for more than two years to get home counseling services but had not yet received that service. He was also getting therapy at Hampden Academy, according to the audio recording.
“We’ve done everything under the sun to deal with his disease,” the man said.
The teen has bipolar disorder and could go from, “fine to boiling over,” the man said. The woman also said Young could go from the, “sweetest, nicest kid you would ever meet in your life to a crazy little psycho.”
The man said Young “beat the sh*t out of her,” referring to the woman, when he didn’t get his way.
His behavior had been going on for years and years and years, the woman said. He has not only attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional disorder, but also intermittent explosive disorder. In addition to beating up the woman, leaving her with a swollen, black-and-blue face and other bruises, the man said Young would take a pickaxe to vehicles on the property while going on rampages.
The man and woman said Young would often apologize after he had his explosive behavior. Both the man and woman expressed their concern for the teen and discussed their efforts to help him. When he failed to take his medicine, he would fly into a rage. The adults said, however, they believe he knew right from wrong.
The man said if the teen kept up his actions he would end up in jail when he turned 18.
Young has been charged with murder in connection with the July 2, 2025, death of Stewart. Young was 17 at the time but turned 18 after his arrest.
His case is currently sealed, pending a determination on whether he is competent to stand trial and whether he will be tried as a juvenile or adult.
Stewart’s murder at a campground in Union last summer shocked the midcoast and attracted national attention, as did Young’s arrest, with many asking if something could have been done to prevent it.
How the Villager obtained this information
On July 21, Villager reporter Stephen Betts requested Waldo County Sheriff’s Office records related to any calls to Young’s home in Frankfort, under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act.
Waldo County denied the FOAA request, contending the records were not public under state law.
The Villager filed a court appeal of the denial in Kennebec County, where Justice Daniel Mitchell sided with the newspaper on Dec. 30, 2025. He gave Waldo County time to redact names and other information. “The court finds the County lacked just and proper cause for denying the request,” Mitchell wrote in his decision, “and therefore orders disclosure of those records.”
Mitchell said that after he reviewed the Jan. 4, 2023, police record, he determined it met the exception to the confidentiality of investigative records because of the significant public interest in the matter.
Pointing to one of the documents he ordered released, Mitchell concluded that “information in it is likely to advance the public interest in ensuring that law enforcement and other authorities respond appropriately.”
Mitchell ordered the Sheriff’s Office to turn over a police report dated Jan. 4, 2023, a list of calls to the location and an audio recording related to that Jan. 4, 2023, report. He ruled that a Maine Department of Health and Human Services record, along with a police record from Aug. 13, 2023, were confidential and were not to be turned over to the Villager.
He said the court was not tasked with determining whether authorities missed an opportunity to have prevented the murder of Stewart, but that the January 2023 police record should be released because it would enhance public knowledge of how law enforcement and other agencies responded.
Most of the records were turned over to the Villager on Jan. 15.
Who is Deven Young?
Young has been charged with murder in the July 3 death of Sunshine Stewart on Crawford Pond in Union. Stewart and Young were both staying at the same campground on the pond.
Young’s name was first released by the court at the request of the Villager when the teen made his initial court appearance for the murder. At that July 18 hearing, Young entered a denial to the murder charge. Since that hearing, the case has been sealed until the court determines whether Young is competent to stand trial.
That determination is likely to be made during the first quarter this year. If Young is found competent, the criminal case will be unsealed. Until then, there will be no public information about the case.
The Maine attorney general’s office has sought to have the case transferred to adult court, as Young turned 18 shortly after the murder. This issue is important because if Young is tried as an adult and convicted, he would face a minimum of 25 years and up to life in prison. If tried as a juvenile, he could be sentenced to juvenile detention until he turns 21 years old, meaning a maximum of three years.
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.