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Teen Killed Random Woman on Family Vacation · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So I want you to just picture an idyllic summer
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: vacation right in the middle of the Maine woods. Oh, yeah.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Just that perfect summer getaway.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Exactly. You know, you have the scent of pine trees.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: There's a quiet, glassy pond reflecting the sunset. And you're
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: surrounded by families who have probably driven, you know, hours
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: out of the city just to find a bit of
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: a sanctuary. Right.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Just to unplug for a bit.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And you're sitting by a campfire, completely relaxed. And
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: you're just assuming everyone around you is there for the
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: exact same peaceful reason.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Because why wouldn't you?
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Right. But now imagine waking up the next morning to
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the sound of sirens and realizing that the sanctuary has
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: been completely shattered.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: That's terrifying.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: It really is. Because you find out the teenager who
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: was like roasting marshmallows at the campsite right next to
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: yours is actually a calculated killer. And a woman who
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: simply went out for an evening paddleboard ride is dead. Yeah.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: The dissonance there between that peaceful environment and the horrific
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: reality of the crime is honestly what makes this Specific
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: investigation so chilling.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: It's completely jarring.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: It is. So today, we are looking at a case
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: recently detailed by the Long Crime Network. And it's about
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: a 17-year-old boy who was accused of the brutal, unprovoked
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: murder of a woman, all while he was just on
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: a family camping trip.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Which is just, I mean, it's hard to wrap your
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: head around.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Because, you know, when violence happens in, say, a
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: dark alley in a major city, society almost has a
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: psychological framework for that. Right.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: We kind of expect it, sadly.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah. But when it happens on a private, secluded pond
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: in Maine, right among vacationing families, it just strips away
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: every illusion of safety we have.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: It absolutely does. And that's exactly why we are going
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: to take you deep into the mechanics of this investigation today.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Because this isn't just about reciting facts. No, not
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: at all.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: The real mission of this deep dive is to unpack
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: the profound psychological intricacies of a localized manhunt.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Which is fascinating on its own. Right.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: We are going to look at the exact mechanism of
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: how perpetrators, even teenagers, inadvertently build their own cages by
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: basically trying to outsmart veteran homicide detectives.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Oh, the arrogance is wild. It is.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: And as we follow this through to where the case
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: is at right now, we are going to dive into
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: a truly shocking legal reality regarding juvenile sentencing in Maine.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this part blew my mind.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, we are talking about a technicality that could
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: literally take a brutal murder conviction... and turn it into
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: a mere three-year sentence.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Which could completely alter the outcome of this entire case. Exactly.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: And I think, well, understanding how these two completely distinct
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: lives collided requires us to look really closely at who
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: they were. Right.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: We have to start with the victim.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Her name was Sunshine Stewart, but everyone in her
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: community just called her Sunny.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Which seems like a very fitting name for her.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: It really does. So she was from Union, Maine, which
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: is a town about an hour and a half north
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: of Portland.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: OK, so pretty far up there.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And looking at her background based on the sources,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: this was not some tourist who was unfamiliar with the
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: wilderness or the water.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Not at all.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: No, her entire professional and personal life was deeply, deeply
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: intertwined with the outdoors.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: The sources detail this incredibly rugged, resilient resume for her.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely. She had been a boat captain for one. Right.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: And she also worked in the lobstering industry.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Which, I mean, we have to pause on that. That
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: is notoriously grueling work.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's brutal. It's physically demanding. It requires immense balance, strength,
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: and just a lot of situational awareness.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Right. You're out there on the open ocean hauling heavy traps.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: And most recently, she was working as a contractor.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: So she was clearly a woman who knew exactly how
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: to handle herself and the elements.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Exactly. And she loved this environment so much that she
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: actually rented a camper for the summer at this place
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: called the Micmac Campsite.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: I think some people pronounce it Mic Mac, but yeah,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: it's a private campground.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Right, and it's situated right on the north end of
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Crawford Pond.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Just a beautiful spot.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she was just there to spend several weeks enjoying
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: a peaceful season on the water.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Which brings us to the actual evening of July 2nd.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Right, the timeline of when everything went wrong.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: So the timeline places Sunny going out on her paddleboard
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: sometime between 6 and 9 p.m.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Okay, so the sun is starting to go down. The
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: water is probably super calm.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Exactly, but She never returned to her camper.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: And when authorities were alerted, they launched this massive search
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: effort across the entire pond.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: I can imagine.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: But it wasn't until around 1 o'clock in the morning
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: that her body was finally discovered.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Wow, so they were searching for hours in the dark.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And according to the local paper, the Midcoast Villager,
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: searchers found her on the south end of an island
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: that's located right in the middle of Crawford Pond.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: In the middle of the pond. Okay.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: She was near the shore and her paddleboard was just
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: found nearby.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: And obviously the major crimes unit took over immediately, right?
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. They ruled the death a homicide pretty much
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: right away.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: But initially, law enforcement completely withheld the cause of death.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they usually do that to protect the integrity of
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: the investigation.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Right. They kept the specific details really close to the vest.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: But when they eventually released the reality of what happened
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: to her.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: It was horrifying.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: It really was. It revealed this profoundly dark, intensely violent picture.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: The cause of death was a combination of blunt force
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: trauma and strangulation.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: And the mechanics of that specific cause of death, they
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: dictate the entire direction of the initial investigation.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: How so?
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Well, strangulation and blunt force trauma, they are not detached,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: sterile methods of killing.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Right. It's not like a sniper from a distance.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Exactly. They are incredibly intimate. They require close quarters
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: physical overpowering.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: And when you consider Sunny's background, like we just talked about.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Right. A physically capable woman who hauled lobster traps and
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: worked as a contractor.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Overpowering her would require a massive, aggressive physical struggle.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Exactly. It's not something that happens quietly or easily.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: But that physical reality forces a huge question about the
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: logistics of this crime. I mean, think about paddleboarding.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: It's very peaceful.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: It's a serene, almost meditative act. You are balancing on
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: a board, gliding over silent water. And sound travels incredibly
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: far over open water.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely it does.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: So a struggle of that magnitude, strangling and beating a
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: physically strong woman, is inherently chaotic. It involves splashing, thrashing,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and screaming.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: A lot of noise, yeah.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: So how on earth does a crime of this sheer,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: close-quarters violence occur out on a pond, Or even on
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: the shoreline of that small island without a massive struggle
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: echoing across the water and alerting every other camper in
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: the vicinity.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Well, the isolation of that island in the middle of
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: the pond obviously played a massive role. Sure. But there
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: is a geographical factor here that completely shifted the investigative strategy.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: What's that?
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: So Crawford Pond is not a public lake with massive
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: open access. Oh, I see. Yeah. You cannot simply drive
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: off the interstate, pull your car over to the side
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: of the road and launch a boat.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Right, you can't just stumble upon it.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Exactly. To access that water, you either need to own
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: one of the private waterfront homes, or you have to
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: be a registered guest staying at the Mike Mack private campsite. Wow.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: So the geography essentially locks the doors to the crime scene.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Pretty much, yeah.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: The killer couldn't just commit this horrific act and then
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: disappear into the anonymity of a crowded city.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: No, they couldn't lend into highway traffic at all.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Because that restricted access physically shrinks the suspect pool from,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: you know, anyone in the state of Maine down to
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: a highly finite list of people.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: People who were already behind the gates of that specific
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: community on July 2nd.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: That is wild. So the killer was geographically trapped by
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the very seclusion they used to commit the crime in
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: the first place.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Investigators knew almost immediately that the perpetrator was likely
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: hiding in plain sight.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Just blending in. Yeah.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: They were waking up in a camper or a cabin
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: the next morning, drinking their coffee, and just watching the
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: police boats launch into the water.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, the audacity of sitting there, literally watching the
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: very people hunting you, is sickening.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: And that brings us directly to the suspect, Devin Young.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: He's just 17 years old, originally from Frankfurt, Maine, which
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: is about an hour away from Crawford Pond.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: And he was staying at the exact same Mic Mac
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: campsite because he was on a summer vacation with his parents.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Just a normal family trip.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Right. But his behavior during the two-week manhunt following Sonny's
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: murder is just a crazy study in psychological hubris.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, it really is.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Because 10 days after the murder, while the entire community
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: is on edge and the major crimes unit is scouring
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: the pond, Young hopped onto his Facebook page.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Like, nothing happened?
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Now, the page has since been deleted, but local
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: news outlets captured a specific interaction.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: What did it say?
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Someone simply asked him how he was doing. And he
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: casually replied that he was doing well.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, posting a casual life update 10 days after
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: allegedly committing a physically dominating murder is deeply unsettling.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: It's chilling.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: But honestly, his offline behavior is where he actively jeopardized
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: his own freedom.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, tell us about that.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: So according to the owner of the campground, Devin Young
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: made himself highly visible to the police.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: He didn't just hide out in his family's tent.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: No, not at all. He actually approached the investigators. He
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: claimed he, quote, had information that could help them locate
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: the killer.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: You're kidding.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: I wish I was. He took it a step further, too.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: He physically took the investigators out on the water in
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: a boat to show them where to look.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Okay, taking them on a boat ride isn't just a
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: teenager trying to be helpful. That is a desperate, calculated
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: attempt to orchestrate the search grid.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Yep, he was trying to run the show.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: It's like a stage magician relying on misdirection to pull
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: off a trick, right? Just waving one hand so you
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: don't look at the other. Because by leading them in
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: a specific direction, he was purposefully steering them on what
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: the campground owner called a wild goose chase.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Which is exactly what it was.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Because he pointed them in the exact opposite direction of
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: the island where Sonny's body was actually found.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Yes. And, you know, this is actually a recognized psychological
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: phenomenon in law enforcement. Really?
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Retired NYPD Detective Tom Smith provides some crucial insight into
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: this behavior in the source material.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: What does he say?
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: He says perpetrators frequently insert themselves into the center of
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: their own homicide investigations.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Like they want to be part of the action.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Exactly. Detective Smith actually compares it to the Scott
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Peterson case.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Remember how Peterson famously helped organize massive community search parties
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: for his wife, Lacey?
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: While knowing exactly where he had dumped her body.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Right. The motivation there is rooted in control and self-preservation.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: They want to monitor the hunt.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Exactly. By getting close to the detectives, they can gauge
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: exactly how much the police know. They can see what
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: evidence they have collected and figure out what direction the
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: search is heading.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: It is just the ultimate arrogant assumption.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: A 17-year-old kid believes he can stand in the control
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: room with veteran homicide detectives and manipulate the dials without
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: them noticing?
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: It's pure hubris.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: But, I mean, claiming you have earth-shattering clues to a
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: random homicide when almost no public information has been released?
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: That is a massive glowing red flag.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Normal teenagers on family vacations don't just, you know, stumble
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: upon the missing puzzle pieces of a murder.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: No, they don't. And that overplaying of the hand is
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: exactly what causes the facade to unravel.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Right, because detectives see right through it.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they are trained to look for anomalies in behavior.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: So a teenager overly eager to help in a vacuum
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: of public information immediately draws suspicion.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: It has to.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: And when that same teenager then physically leads investigators in
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: a 180 degree opposite direction from the crime scene, it
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: elevates them from a mere person of interest to a
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: primary target. Wow. As Detective Smith points out, this specific
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: brand of misdirection is a massive tactical error that almost
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: always backfires.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: But wait, let's back up for a second. We are
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: talking about a 17-year-old on a family trip.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Detective Smith is quoted in the sources using incriminating Incredibly
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: heavy language to describe the suspect.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Very heavy, yeah.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: He calls Young a maniacal person. He describes the attack
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: as planned, targeted, and he specifically uses the word hunted.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: Which is an intense word choice.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: It is. I mean, labeling a teenager on a camping
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: trip a hunter seems like a massive leap.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: I can see why you'd think that.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Honestly, doesn't this look more like a horrific split-second crime
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: of opportunity, like an aggressive kid just snapped, rather than
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: some masterminded plot by a calculated predator?
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Well, the skepticism around jumping straight to calculated predator is
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: exactly where defense attorneys are going to focus their arguments.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Naturally.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: However, if we synthesize Detective Smith's broader analysis with the
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: background information that emerged from Young's hometown of Frankfort, a
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: much darker pattern of behavior crystallizes.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Okay. What kind of background information?
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: Well, after the arrest, local anecdotes began trickling out. One
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: friend noted that Young seemed a little, quote, off in June,
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: just weeks prior to the murder.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Off is pretty vague, though.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: It is. But more crucially, two anonymous schoolmates revealed a
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: long-established history of aggression.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Oh, really?
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they claimed Young had been a known bully since
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: preschool and was specifically known for getting into physical fights.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, but a bully getting into physical fights is, well,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: it's standard, albeit troubling teenage behavioral issues.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: True.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: It's a disciplinary problem for a school principal, not typically
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: a precursor to a homicide investigation.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Right. It doesn't normally lead to murder.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: So how does law enforcement bridge the gap between schoolyard
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: fighting and the targeted strangulation of a woman on a
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: secluded pond?
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: They bridge it by looking at the threshold of physical violence.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: What do you mean?
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Well, bullying and fighting establish a psychological comfort with crossing
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: physical boundaries to exert dominance or control over another person.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Okay, I see.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: So when you take that existing comfort with violence and
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: you intersect it with a highly secluded environment, like an
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: isolated island at dusk, and a vulnerable target?
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: It's a recipe for disaster.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The opportunity doesn't create the violent impulse out of
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: thin air. The opportunity activates an existing capacity for extreme aggression.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: That is a terrifying thought.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: It is. Detective Smith notes that we can never fully
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: know the exact trigger inside the suspect's mind. Right.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: We can't read his thoughts.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: It could be a media contagion effect, something you've read,
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: or even the notoriety of other killers.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: But the transition from a history of boundary breaking to
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: a targeted violent attack explains why seasoned detectives view this
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: not as a tragic accident, but as a deeply predatory act.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: That just makes the reality of identifying these threats so terrifying.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: How so?
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Because the warning signs of a capacity for extreme violence
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: are often completely indistinguishable from everyday adolescent acting out.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, until it's too late.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Until the exact moment a line is crossed and
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: a life is taken. And that underlying arrogance, the exact
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: same overconfidence that fueled his history of bullying, explains exactly
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: why his attempt to play games with the police ultimately
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: resulted in the trap snapping shut. Right.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: They saw right through it.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Which leads us to the timeline of the actual arrest
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: on July 16th.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Exactly two weeks after the murder.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it really demonstrates how methodically law enforcement builds
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: these cases.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: It was brutal. Very calculated on their end.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: So on that day, investigators sat down and spoke to Young.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: We don't have the transcripts of that specific conversation, but
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: the tactical sequence of what happened next is super telling.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Right. Because after speaking with him, the police physically left
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: the campsite.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: They just packed up and left.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah. They withdrew from the premises for a few hours.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Then during the 10 p.m. hour, they returned to the
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: Micmac campground and arrested Devin Young without incident right in
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: front of his family.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: So when they leave the campsite for those few hours,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: they aren't just taking a coffee break to mull over
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: his answers.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: Oh, definitely not.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: It's like a chess player who sees a checkmate but
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: steps back from the table to make absolutely certain before
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: moving the final piece.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: That is a perfect analogy.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: They are weaving his statements into a massive circumstantial net.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: They are layering the campground surveillance videos, which establish the
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: timeline of who was near the water, with his recorded
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: lies about the boat ride. Right.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: They were getting everything in order.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Getting the prosecutors on the phone to secure the warrants,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: making absolutely sure the cage is completely watertight before they
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: move in to make the arrest.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: The coordination required during those few hours away from the
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: suspect is immense.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: I can't even imagine.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: They have to align the forensic teams, the lead detectives,
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: and the district attorney's office to ensure there are no
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: procedural missteps that could jeopardize the case in court. Right.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: One mistake and it all falls apart.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: And Detective Smith compares this critical phase to the heavily
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: scrutinized Brian Koberger case in Idaho.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, the college student murders. Yes.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Both cases feature suspects who believe they were intellectually superior
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: to the investigators. Right.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Koberger was literally a criminology student.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And Young believed he could successfully play detective and
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: misdirect a homicide squad on a boat.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: But the universal flaw that ultimately brings them down is
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: their compulsion to talk.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: Always. Always. They just can't help themselves.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: But looking ahead to a potential trial, I have a
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: big question.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Okay, what is it?
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: The physical reality of the crime scene presents a massive hurdle.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: It does.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: The cause of death involves blunt force trauma and strangulation,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: which obviously implies direct, violent physical contact.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Right, very close contact.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: But Sunny was found on an island near the water
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: alongside her paddleboard.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: If the water degraded or entirely washed away the DNA evidence,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: which happens a lot in water recoveries, How does a
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: prosecutor secure a conviction for a brutal homicide without the
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: gold standard of forensic science?
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: It's tough, for sure.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Can they actually lock someone away for life based mainly
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: on a fake boat ride and some deceptive statements?
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: Well, Detective Smith addresses this specific evidentiary hurdle directly.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: What does he say?
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: He asserts that circumstantial evidence built on a suspect's own
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: lies can be profoundly powerful in a courtroom.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Really? More than DNA?
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Sometimes, yeah. Perpetrators can plan the mechanics of a murder,
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: but they cannot script the aftermath.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: That makes sense.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: They cannot anticipate the exact questions a veteran detective will ask,
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: nor can they game plan the interrogation strategy.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Right, because you cannot untell a lie once it's on
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: the record.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: If the physical DNA is compromised by the pond water,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: his own misdirection organically transforms into the primary forensic evidence.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: That's a great way to put it.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: A jury can look at the surveillance video placing him
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: at the pond, combine it with the documented provable fact
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: that he lied and led police away from the body,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: and suddenly the lack of DNA doesn't matter as much.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Right, because the lies themselves form the load-bearing pillars of
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: the prosecution's case. Wow. Yeah, the deceptive actions demonstrate a
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: clear consciousness of guilt.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: An innocent teenager on a family vacation does not fabricate
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: information and lead police away from a crime scene.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: No, they just don't.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Once those lies are documented, the trap is closed and
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the battle transitions from the shores of Crawford Pond directly
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: into the courtroom.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: And this is exactly where the case hits a profound
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: legal chasm.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Oh, this is the part that is just wild.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: So Devin Young is 17 years old right now. Right.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: He is currently being held in a youth detention center
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: outside of Portland, Maine.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Correct.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: But he actually turns 18 in September, which is a
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: mere three months after the July 2nd murder.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Just three months shy of legal adulthood.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Now, the prosecutors have officially filed a motion to try
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: him as an adult.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: Which they usually do in cases like this.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: But it is not an automatic process at all.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: No, it's not.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: A judge has to grant final approval based on three
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: specific factors dictated by Maine state law.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: What are they?
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: The violence of the crime, the danger the suspect poses
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: to the community, and their criminal history.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: Okay, so the judge has to weigh those three things.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Exactly. And the stakes resting on this judge's ruling are
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: just staggering because the sentencing disparity between the juvenile and
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: adult justice systems in Maine is astronomical.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, let's break that down because it's a huge disparity.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, so if the judge approves the motion and Young
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: is tried and convicted as an adult, he faces 25
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: years to life in prison.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Which seems standard for a murder of this magnitude.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Right. But if the judge denies the motion keeping the
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: case in the juvenile system, the state of Maine can
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: only hold him until he reaches the age of 21.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: That is just... It's hard to process.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: No matter how calculated, no matter how brutal the murder
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: is proven to be, He would walk free in just
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: three or four years. He could commit a physically dominating
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: homicide and be released back into society right around the
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: time he is legally allowed to buy a beer.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: It's a dizzying disparity.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: It really is. It's like a terrifying coin flip. Heads
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: a lifetime behind bars. Tails, you're out in a few years.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: And it forces the legal system to grapple with the
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: fundamental philosophy of juvenile justice.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: What do you mean by that?
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: Well, the entire juvenile court framework was built on the
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: neuroscientific reality that adolescent brains, specifically the prefrontal cortex, which
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: governs impulse control and long-term consequence evaluation, they are just
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: not fully developed.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Right. Teenagers make stupid, impulsive decisions.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The system operates on the belief that because a
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: teenager's brain is highly malleable, they are inherently capable of rehabilitation.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: So the goal is to correct the behavior.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. rather than throw away a life before it
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: is fully begun.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Okay, I get that. The juvenile system exists precisely because
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: teenagers lack impulse control. But we aren't talking about a
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: teenager who made a tragic split-second mistake during a robbery
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: or got into a schoolyard fight that went horribly wrong.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: No, we definitely aren't.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: We are talking about someone who allegedly executed a targeted
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: strangulation and then possessed the extreme cognitive control required to
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: approach homicide detectives fabricate a story, and stage a physical
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: boat ride to misdirect the investigation.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: That takes a lot of forethought.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Doesn't the level of planning and manipulation required to
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: cover up the crime entirely strip away the underdeveloped brain defense?
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, doesn't Detective Smith's stance that actions matter more
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: than age sort of invalidate the purpose of the juvenile system?
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Or is the system just broken when it comes to
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: extreme violence?
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: That tension you're describing is exactly what the judge must
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: navigate using those three main state law factors. Right.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: The violence, the danger, and the history.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: They have to weigh the ideal of youth rehabilitation against
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: the horrific, tangible reality of this specific attack.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: So how do they evaluate the first factor, the violence
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: of the crime?
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: Well, considering it involves blunt force and strangulation, it is
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: clearly at the extreme end of the spectrum.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you can't really argue that it wasn't violent. Right.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Then they must assess the danger to others, which is
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: arguably severe, given the random, unprovoked nature of the attack
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: on a secluded pond.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: If he did it once to a stranger, he could
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: do it again.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And finally, they look at the criminal history.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Now wait, does he have a formal criminal history?
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Well, maybe not a formal record, but incorporating the longstanding
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: pattern of bullying and physical altercations paints a clear picture
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: for the judge.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: For law enforcement professionals like Detective Smith... When a minor
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: exhibits the calculated malice and predatory awareness of an adult killer,
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: they completely forfeit the rehabilitative protections designed for wayward youths. Wow.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: It just places an incredibly heavy burden on the judge.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: It really does.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: They have to look at the timeline, the violence, and
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: the psychology of a 17-year-old and make a decision that
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: will basically define the concept of justice for Sonny Stewart's family.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: And as this legal process unfolds, We really have to
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: ground the conversation back in the reality of the life
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: that was lost. Absolutely. Sunny Stewart was a woman who
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: built her life around hard work, resilience, and a deep,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: deep love for the Maine outdoors.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: She sounded incredible.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: And her life was violently cut short in the very
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: place she considered a peaceful sanctuary.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: It's just devastating. And the ripples of this tragedy are
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: obviously still spreading through her community.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: Oh, for sure. Law enforcement is actually still actively seeking
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: tips from Anyone who might have seen her on the
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: water on the evening of July 2nd.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: So they are still working the timeline.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, working to lock down every possible millimeter of it.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: And I read that her friends and community are still
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: raising funds for her funeral, just trying to process the
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: immense void left behind.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: It's heartbreaking.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: It forces us to confront a deeply unsettling reality about
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: the spaces we share.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: In what way?
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Well, just go back to that image of the family
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: vacation I mentioned at the very beginning. Okay. You are
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: sitting at a crowded summer campsite, surrounded by families enjoying
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: the outdoors. Right. You feel a profound sense of safety
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: because you assume a shared social contract with everyone around you.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: You assume everyone is there to just relax.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Yet just one tent over, sitting by their own campfire,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: is someone harboring the capacity for and allegedly executing a
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: calculated violent murder.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: It's chilling to even think about.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: It shatters the illusion of safety we attach to ordinary spaces.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: We desperately want the world to be neatly categorized, right?
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Where the threats are obvious and the danger is completely visible.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we want the bad guys to look like bad guys.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Exactly. But sometimes you look at the teenager at the
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: campsite next to yours and you realize you never truly
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: know what lies beneath the surface.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: That is a terrifying thought to leave with.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: It really is. Stay aware out there. And thanks for
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: joining us for this deep dive.