Finding Judith Hand

Police Chief Raymond Orr was in over his head, and he knew it. He stood on Lincoln Street in Farmington, Maine with his back to the late morning sun, staring at a mountain of decomposing sawdust. The pile loomed 25 feet high and sat on a large patch of marshy earth, about 60 feet long and 40 feet across. His officers had cordoned off the street and were now stepping carefully around the weeds and brambles that had sprung up around the pile. The sawdust had sat abandoned for 20 years—refuse from the old Corson Mill that had long been out of business. This morning, following the discovery of the body, it was receiving more attention than it had in decades.

It was the morning of Thursday, September 23, 1971—thirteen days after 15-year-old Judith Hand had been reported missing. The area had already been scoured—most of the town had—but a search party led by one of the state’s game wardens did a second pass over this block.

One member of the search party, a young deputy sheriff, was working his way through 50 feet of puckerbrush to the pile. The ground and the pile both were wet and spongy—it was described as a “swampy area” by the Bangor Daily News. At 9:12AM on the morning of Thursday, September 23, 1971, Deputy Hemmingway made a terrible discovery. He noticed an indentation in the pile and “felt something was amiss.” He used his foot to dig. He thought somebody might have buried an animal, but when he revealed a garment of clothing the color blue, he knew what he had—Judy had last been seen wearing a blue blouse. As he dug into the warm moist sawdust, he began to reveal the body of a young woman who was clearly dead. She was partially-clothed, wearing just a blue blouse and a ring.

About 15 feet away, in another part of the sawdust pile, he found her buried clothing—shorts and a pair of black sneakers.

Chief Orr had no doubt in his mind who it belonged to, even before he saw her. The search was over but a new one was beginning. It was time to hand this over to the State Police, just as soon as he went to see the girl’s mother.

A shy and responsible girl

Lillian Hand was 42 years old in 1971 when she got the news that her daughter, Judy, was killed. It was a vicious blow to the entire Hand family.

Lillian was married to Judy’s dad, Edward Hand, and together they had 10 children in 13 years. Judy was #4. Raising a large family was not unusual for that time—it’s called the Baby Boom for a reason. Judy was the one who never caused trouble and helped to support the family.

Even at 15, Judy was contributing financially to the household. Judy attended the 9th grade at Mt. Blue Junior High School, just a short walk up the street from her house. In the early afternoons, when school let out, she often babysat for families around town. She worked for her mother’s youngest brother, Roger, and his wife Rita.

“She was so bubbly and full of life—very content in her world,” Aunt Rita would later recall. “She was one of these people, I don’t care how bad a mood you were in, one smile from her would bring you out of it.”

Judy was small for her age—only 4’11” by the time she was fifteen—and she still had some youthful baby fat that, with her dimples, and a mop of blonde hair, made her look like a little innocent cherub. Though early reports described her eyes as blue, her mom corrected them—they were hazel.

Judy Hand occupied a small corner of the world, but it was a corner she made brighter for those around her.

Judy vanishes

It was about 2:10 PM on Friday, September 10, 1971, when Judy arrived home from school. Her mother was readying herself for her shift at Forster’s Manufacturing in the nearby town of Wilton.

Lillian said goodbye and left for her shift. She wasn’t worried about Judy getting into trouble—the 2-mile walk was one that her daughter knew well. Plus, it went right through the center of town, under the watchful eyes of the community. Though it would take her 20 or 30 minutes, she was mature enough to get there on her own. It was a decision that Lillian would later regret.

Just a little before 3:00PM, Judy left her family’s home on foot. The days were getting shorter, but sunset wasn’t for another 4 hours at 6:56PM. Judy wore just a blue blouse and a pair of green shorts. If the evening turned chilly, her aunt could always drive her back, or one of her brothers could pick her up.

Afterschool childcare was in constant demand in a town of second- and third- shift workers. Babysitting was a common way for responsible teenagers to earn some money.

As she made her way to the center of town, she greeted a girl from the neighborhood who was also on her way to babysit. Minutes later, Judy ran into another friend, who walked with her into the downtown of Farmington, where Middle Street dead-ended into High Street at the American Legion Hall. The red brick building sat in the heart of the University of Maine campus. With fall term in session, the town must have felt active and vibrant.

In the days to come, when the interviews and witness statements and recollections were pieced together, the police would acknowledge this as the last definitive sighting of Judy alive: a small blonde girl dressed in summer clothes, standing on a street corner near the center of town.

A long and terrible weekend

Across the river and a short time later, Aunt Barbara was growing irritated. She had places to be and every minute that ticked by was a minute closer to a tantrum. She had promised the kids that their cousin Judy was coming to play with them.

She supposed all teenagers, even responsible ones like her niece, could be inconsiderate sometimes. Judy had probably turned on a TV show or stopped to chat with friends and lost track of time. It was a mistake everyone made at some point. But she did feel a hint of concern beneath her annoyance. Her sister-in-law’s oldest girl was reliable. A little before 4:00PM, Barbara called the Forster factory and asked for Lillian.

For Lillian Hand, there was no hesitation. Her daughter had been trustworthy since she was a small child. If she hadn’t made it to her babysitting appointment, it was time to be worried. She phoned her house and had one of her sons pick her up from the factory. They drove around Farmington and West Farmington, looking for Judy, following the path she would have taken to Barbara’s house and asking for her at any building where she may have stopped along the way.

At about a quarter past 8:00PM, Lillian called the Farmington PD. She would claim, later, that the police assured her that her daughter would turn up by Monday morning, in time for classes at Mt. Blue Junior High. Lillian recalled that the officers told her that they could not do anything for 48 hours, anyway, and just to wait.

It was a hellish night for the Hand family. Judy was out there, possibly alone in the elements, or worse—with someone who wished her harm. The waiting was particularly hard on her father, Edward, who was too sick to get out of bed, even though he desperately wanted to search for his daughter. Hours passed in agony. The phone didn’t ring. There was no shame-faced Judy walking through the door.

Despite their initial reluctance, by Saturday morning, the family convinced the Farmington police to begin looking for the missing girl. They knocked on doors along Middle Street and the surrounding neighborhoods, asking residents if they recalled seeing the girl. Officers, firemen, and local volunteers walked the roads between High Street and West Farmington, searching.

Off the end of Lincoln Street

On Monday morning, September 13, there was still no sign of Judith Hand. School started at Mt. Blue Junior High without her. She had been missing for three nights. Overnight lows were in the 40s. The Farmington Police returned to her family’s home to review the missing person report. While they were now taking the teenager’s disappearance more seriously, Lillian had the sense that they still viewed her as a hysterical mother. She told them that she had the distinct feeling that something was very wrong and, according to her, they were dismissive. She would later recall, “They looked at me as if to say, ‘What are you, nuts? No mother has that feeling.’”

Fortunately, none of the Hand family was with the search team that finally found Judy, nearly two weeks after her disappearance, in the sawdust pile off the end of Lincoln Street. They didn’t have to see their sister’s badly-decomposed remains peeking from the decaying wood chips. It was testament to the long hours and thorough work of the authorities that the search party had even revisited Lincoln Street; Judy’s body was so well-hidden that it might have sat there for years, unnoticed.

The investigation

Almost immediately it was clear that the investigation was beyond the meager resources of the Farmington PD. The Maine State Police led the investigation. Since the 1960s, homicides in Maine are typically handled by the state’s Major Crimes Unit and prosecuted by the attorney general’s office. The team assigned to Judy’s case consisted of seven men, led by detective sergeant Gerald Boutilier. Boutilier was a veteran officer of 14 years, having joined the State Police in 1957.

The Maine State Attorney General’s office appointed Assistant AG Richard Cohen as media liaison for the investigation. The day after Judy’s body was discovered, he told the press that the deputy chief medical examiner who had conducted the autopsy could not determine her cause of death. Nor could he assess whether she had been sexually assaulted. Her body had simply been in the sawdust and the elements for too long. There were two heavy rains in the two weeks that she was missing—raining nearly 2 inches in 24 hours on September 12th, and another inch on September 21st. Sheriff Dennis Pike would later recall in 2014, “the sawdust was wet. That generates heat, [speeding decomposition].”

To Lillian, it was hard to believe. Outside of the family, her daughter was almost painfully shy… very unlikely to talk to strangers, let alone accept a ride with someone she didn’t know.

Her murder predated DNA technology, and the state of the her remains left little physical evidence. In Judy’s case, the authorities’ most valuable resources were the memories of those who saw her last. They canvassed the area, interviewed her friends and families, and visited the stores that she may have passed by that day.

Judy would have made her way down Middle Street, straight through the heart of downtown and the university campus. The two girls that Judy had met up with earlier on her walk confirmed that she had made it at least as far as the American Legion Building at the corner of Middle and High Streets. From there, her steps became less clear.

No one recalled seeing the teenager on the bridge that crossed the Sandy River (which separated Farmington from West Farmington). On a busy September afternoon, surely someone would have remembered passing a young blonde girl hugging the sidewalk of the bridge. It seemed to the investigators that Judy had not walked much further than the area near High and Middle Streets where she was last seen.

So how did Judy vanish from the center of town on a busy Friday afternoon in the summertime? One way would be in a car. Lillian found it unlikely Judy would have gotten into a car with someone she didn’t know, but what if it were someone she did know?

Detective Sgt. Boutilier and his team had one thing working in their favor: if the person who murdered Judith Hand was a local, or even one of the students attending the university, they would be feeling the pressure. The whole of Farmington was outraged by the violence perpetrated against them. That, coupled with the imposing presence of the state homicide squad… the killer must have felt the probing eyes of everyone upon him.

Judy’s case goes cold

In February of 1972, Edward Hand, Judith’s father, passed away. After battling cancer and living through the death of his eldest daughter, he was finally at rest.

By the fall of 1988, Judy’s case was cold and was only occasionally reviewed. But in late September of that year, Farmington Police Officer Dennis Pike was watching the news and saw a segment about a man jailed in CT who was being questioned in connection with the death of Mary Olenchuk, the girl murdered in Kennebunk the year before Judy died whose case was also unsolved. The program brought up the old question of whether the two girls had been killed by the same person.

There was also a fleeting mention that at least two people had confessed to Judy’s murder over the past 17 years—both of which turned out to be false.

The Morning Sentinel published a retrospective on the case, and reached out to Lillian for comment. Judy’s mother told the reporter that it was deeply painful to remember that period of time, but it would be worth it if the renewed interest produced results. “It’s been hard,” she said. “You wonder if [the killer’s] right near you… but she had been put to rest… and to dig her up again like this… it’s hard for all of us.”

Where the case stands today

There have been multiple articles and TV segments over the years that have turned over Judy’s case, inspected its seams, and tried to find some piece of evidence that was missed or a witness who was never interviewed. Without DNA, and with memories waning and relatives passing on, her murder may remain a mystery. From time to time, a member of the State Police, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department, or the Farmington PD will speak to a journalist. They will express their remorse at having never solved the case, never bringing peace to the family.

Judith Hand is fading. Her childhood predated the digital age, and the only public photo of her is the cherubic yearbook picture that has circulated among law enforcement agencies and the media for decades. The articles all refer to her shyness, her reliability even as a young child. But that tells us nothing about her dreams, her quirks, the things that made her laugh and annoyed her, all the parts that make up a person. Those reside only in the memories of her loved ones. We tried to reach her many surviving siblings, but were unable to. To the Hand family, if you’re listening, we would still be interested to speak with you.

I would like to leave you here with some comments, made on a Facebook post about the case:

From a classmate: “I went to Mt. Blue with her. Judy was the most friendliest person you could have ever asked for! Such a sweet girl!”

From a friend: “Judy was the kindest person I knew…Even though it has been forty plus years she touched us all.”

From her future sister-in-law: “I hadn’t known Judy long, but she made me feel like I belonged with Roger. I miss her too. Farmington Fair is always a reminder.”

And from her sister: “Thank you, everyone, for caring about my sister.”

If you have any information about the murder of Judith Hand, please contact the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit-South, at (207) 624-7076 x9 or toll free at 1-800-228-0857. You can also leave a tip here.

This text has been adapted from the Murder, She Told podcast episode, The Unsolved Murder of Judith Hand. To hear Judith Hand’s full story, find Murder, She Told on your favorite podcast platform.

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Sources For This Episode

Newspaper articles

Various articles from Bangor Daily News, Boston Herald, Daily Sun, Franklin Journal, Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel, Portland Press Herald, and the Sun Journal, here.

Written by various authors including A. Jay Higgins, Betty Jespersen, Bobbie Hanstein, Daniel Austin, Don L. Brough, Don Waterhouse, Helen Caldwell Cushman, Joe Rankin, Karen Kreworuka, Kay Lazar, Lauren Carter, Lola L. Gould, Matt Hongoltz-Hetling, Neil Genzlinger, Robert W. Fowles, and Sharon Mack.

Online written sources

'Cases of unsolved deaths piling up in Maine' (Bangor Daily News), 2/10/1990, by Sharon Kiley Mack

'Roger Hand' (Legacy), 11/2/2007

'Judith E. Hand' (Find a Grave), 6/15/2010

'Edward A. Hand' (Find a Grave), 6/15/2010, by Cheryl Chastain-White

'Freda Josephine Collins Pease Hand' (Find a Grave), 1/8/2013

'Obituary for Lillian Hand' (Wiles Remembrance Centers), 3/25/2013

'Who killed Judith Hand?' (Masthead Maine), 7/4/2014, by Matt Hongoltz-Hetling

'Raymond Trimmer Jr and Sr' (Oak Hill Research), 8/1/2016, by Scott Maxwell, Ronda Randall

'Maine State Police Unsolved Homicide Judith Hand' (Maine State Police Facebook), 9/10/2019

'Police still searching for clues in 48-year-old murder of Judith Hand' (Portland Press Herald), 9/10/2019

'Unsolved Homicides Hand, Judith' (Maine State Police), 10/15/2021

'Obituary: Beverly J. Sincyr' (centralmaine.com), 10/31/2021

'Juanita Allen' (Wiles Remembrance Centers), 7/10/2022

Photos

Photos from Google Maps, Facebook, and various newspaper articles.

Credits

Vocal performance, research, and audio editing by Kristen Seavey

Writing, research support, and photo editing by Byron Willis

Writing by Morgan Hamilton

Additional research by and Samantha Coltart, Sam Wood, and Amanda Connolly

Murder, She Told is created by Kristen Seavey.