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Rural Maine church bracing for revelations in coffee pot arsenic poisonings
Episcopal News Service
Issue:
Section:
2003-124
Posted: Thursday, June 05, 2003
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A tiny rural community in Maine continues to deal with the aftermath of apparently deliberate arsenic poisonings that killed one man and occurred in the unlikeliest of places: a Lutheran church social hall.
A church member put poison in a coffee pot, authorities believe, and later committed suicide over the incident, in which a fellow church member died from drinking the coffee. Authorities continue to investigate whether others were involved in the crime, and are also trying to determine if possible disputes or tensions within the Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church in New Sweden, were a factor in the crime. The church is a member congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the nation's biggest Lutheran body. The church has been in the process of searching for a new pastor, the ELCA News Service reported.
The victim of the poisoning, Walter Reid Morrill, 78, died on April 28, the day after he and other members of the church enjoyed a typical Sunday afternoon social-hour snack of coffee, sandwiches and cake.
Police said a suicide note left by fellow church member Daniel Bondeson--found dead at his home on 2 May, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound--appeared to link him to the incident, in which 15 others were poisoned, though none of them fatally. Bondeson, a potato farmer who did not attend church the day of the poisonings, killed himself after authorities publicly announced that the poisonings were a deliberate act, though perhaps meant to look like a natural event, as the groundwater in rural Maine often has traces of arsenic.
The incident has severely shaken the small congregation and drawn New Sweden, population of 162, unwanted national and international attention. The New York Times likened the case to a television murder mystery, and for days, the small town found itself besieged with reporters.
Margaret Payne, the ELCA New England Synod's bishop, told ENI the incident had stunned the congregation and that members were bracing for word about the police investigation--but were remaining loyal to the church. 'God's grace is present but a lot of healing needs to take place,' said Payne. 'We live in a broken world and sometimes things defy explanation.'
Investigators have said it is likely that more than one person was involved in the crime and that other suspects could be in the congregation. 'Waiting for the next development has been terribly painful and frightening,' Payne said. 'There is a lot of speculation and fear. We don't know what's coming next.'
She noted that moving a church altar forward from a wall and the search for a new pastor had been on the minds of congregation members. Whether those or other issues--normal fare for any congregation --could have upset someone to the point of attempting fatal poisonings was not yet known, she said. 'These are very common things for a congregation, but someone's actions were very uncommon,' she said.
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