Mary Ellen Tanner: Maine Unsolved Homicide — Murder, She Told: Maine & New England True Crime

Mary Tanner is discovered

On Sunday, July 9, 1978, Lori Cray and her cousin went to Gracie-Evans Field, a grassy meadow in Lyman, Maine, just 15 miles from Walker’s Point—where the Bush family has vacationed for generations in Kennebunkport—but a world away. The field was just over the line from the popular resort town of Kennebunk, Maine.

She basked in the sun and watched the Thunderbird Skydivers entertain crowds with their weekly jump. Despite the scorching hot weather in July, families and teens bore the swelter to view the team in action.

The young pilot of the Cessna 180, Dan Alho, a 22-year-old from Old Orchard Beach, had just taken off about 2/3 of the way down the dirt runway.

Dan later recalled, “I glanced [out the side window] at the ground to get an idea of how high I was,” — that’s when he spotted something on the ground. It was only a quick look because he was preoccupied with the plane, but he thought he saw a person, naked, lying motionless in the grass. Had it just appeared? It was his second flight of the day, and he hadn’t noticed it during their first run. He thought, perhaps, it was just a prank—there was a tradition of guys mooning the pilot in their skydiving club. He asked his companions to take a closer look—they thought it was a dead deer. He took another lap around the field in the sky above, peering at the strange pale spot. He decided to bring it down to investigate.

Dan landed the plane and walked through the 6-inch grass of the field—they couldn’t see anything but the waves of grass in front of them as they carved a path through the early summer growth. It was the smell that hit them first. As they moved closer, the odor of something rotting overwhelmed them. Dan later recalled “there were flies everywhere.” A young woman, almost totally nude, lay face down in the grass, her light brown hair falling to one side of her head. He could tell that she was petite but bloated from decay. A gold necklace lay in the grass beside her. Tire tracks in the grass led away from her body, into the distance.

The crowd of people became restless standing in the 94-degree heat and afternoon sun, and Lori had the feeling that something was wrong. After an hour had passed, she and her cousin got ready to pack things up for the drive home, but before anyone could leave, she spotted a man approaching. In a loud clear voice, the man introduced himself as Dan Alho, the pilot of Cessna. He told the group he’d found a girl lying dead in the field, and they should probably go home.

Dan went to Rodney Hammond, who lived near the field, and asked him to call the police. Rodney Hamel, a state trooper, and Cpl. Robert Pelletier responded to the call and drove down. They first questioned Dan and the other Thunderbird Skydivers before allowing them to leave the site. Dan then flew the plane back to Sanford Airport, just a few miles west of the fields—where they stored the plane. On his way, he couldn’t shake the image of the young girl and the smell of death.

First responders arrive at Gracie Evans Field

Don Smith, with the York County Sheriff’s Office, was on scene promptly—the field was just five minutes from his house. He was soon joined by Robert Pelletier with Kennebunk PD and Rodney Hamel with the state police.

32-year-old Corporal Robert Pelletier recalled, “It was hotter than a firecracker.”

They searched right away for some identification, but there was nothing. And none of the cops recognized the girl—the bloating had transformed her appearance. She had long, light-brown hair. She looked young—maybe in her late teens or early 20s. The only clothing she had on was a torn top, which was multi-colored, with black, green, yellow and brown stripes. Near her body was a garment described as a “flannel lumberjacket. The necklace had a thin gold chain with a gold pendant with some engraving on it—described both as a star and as a cross. There were no weapons found anywhere, and there was no sign of struggle at the site, which led cops to immediately conclude that she had been killed elsewhere and her body dumped there in the field.

The police knew that Gracie-Evans Field and nearby woods were often used by teens and young adults in Kennebunk as a party spot, and they knew that there was a party that had occurred the night before. They thought she might have been an attendee.

The police believed that, given her remote, difficult-to-access location, the perpetrator had to be someone local.

Autopsy of the mystery girl

Medical Examiner Dr. Henry Ryan unzipped the body bag and went to work, performing an autopsy examination, making a startling discovery: the woman was 3 months pregnant. He could not determine the sex of the unborn child. Investigators immediately wondered if the early pregnancy was related to her death. Because of the state of her body, Dr. Ryan was unsure if she had been sexually assaulted. Given her state of undress, it was likely she had—perhaps it was even a sexually-motivated crime.

He concluded that it was a healthy young woman, who he estimated to be between 17 and 23 years old. She was covered with many superficial cuts and bruises. The most serious injuries were the many cuts to her scalp, and blunt injuries to her head, back, and neck. He later told the York County Coast Star that he believed that the blows to her head caused her death and that it was possible that the first blow had rendered her unconscious. He estimated that she had died within the past 2-3 days, and he ruled the manner of death as homicide.

He put together a detailed description of Jane Doe and gave it to the police and the press: 5 foot, 4 1/2 inches tall, 125 pounds, with light-brown hair and light-colored eyes.

Mary Olenchuk, 1970 Ogunquit Homicide

In the recent memory of the town and Chief Stevens was the unsolved murder of Mary Olenchuk. In the summer of 1970, 8 years prior, a thirteen-year-old girl was found in a deserted Kennebunk barn on a large property. A thin rope, wrapped around her neck many times, had been used to strangle her to death. People believed that the killer was a local. The type of rope used was predominantly used in the lobster industry—an industry near and dear to Maine. And the location where the body was left was the type of spot that only a nearby resident would be aware of. Her body was found just 10 miles away from Kennebunk’s newest Jane Doe.

Mary Olenchuk was quickly identified as a child in a powerful family who summered in southern Maine in the resort-town of Ogunquit. Because her father was a 2-star Army General, the highest levels of law enforcement—including the FBI and the Army—were involved with the investigation. Despite their enormous efforts, it was never solved. She was last seen getting into a maroon car, perhaps a 1967 Chevy, in Ogunquit. The driver was described by witnesses as a white male in his mid-thirties wearing dark clothing.

People wondered if the mysterious killer had struck again. But that was not the only crime in the minds of Kennebunk residents.

Mary Ellen Tanner identified

On Monday, the day after she was found, Chief Stevens got a lead on Jane Doe’s identity. Two young women, Debbie Deteso and Jackie O’Keefe, recognized—from a TV broadcast—the gold-chain necklace that was found next to her body—it belonged to a friend of theirs—a friend that they hadn’t seen for a couple of days.

The exact sequence of events of what follows has been reported different ways:

Kennebunk PD Officer Robert Pelletier knew the family and went to their house to break the news that the police believed their daughter was the victim the town was desperate to identify. Charles Sr., the father, was actually out looking for her when Officer Pelletier knocked on the door. Shirley Tanner, the mother, was the one who answered and got the news. Charles Sr. later said in an interview in 1996, “I remember pulling up to the house [after getting back from my search] and seeing two or three cruisers in the driveway.”

Jane Doe wore a lower retainer and they wanted to get the dental records of their daughter for comparison, so the Tanners got ahold of her dentist—Dr. Ross Wyman—late Monday night and had him pull her file. They were a match.

Their oldest son, Charlie Tanner Jr., who lived in Portland, had rushed home to be with his family. He later recalled that it was Dickie Bibber (of Bibber Memorial Chapel, a local funeral home) that came in with the positive identification.

The victim was Mary Tanner, their youngest daughter.

Who Was Mary Tanner?

Mary Tanner had blown out the candles on her birthday cake on June 8th, just a few weeks before she died. She turned 18 years old. She grew up in Kennebunk at 129 Cat Mousam Road with her parents, Charles Sr. and Shirley, and her older siblings, Charlie Jr., Beth, and Gail. They were close to downtown—just a one mile walk to the Mousam River bridge at the center of town.

Charlie Jr. was the eldest of the siblings—32 years old at the time of her death. He was living in Portland and had started a family of his own. Beth, 4 years Mary’s senior, was off at college in Orono at the University of Maine, but was home for the summer. And Gail was living at home, just two years older than Mary, and working in nearby Wells, Maine.

The Tanner children were almost done growing up.

Mary just finished her junior year at Kennebunk High School. She was one of the older children in her grade because she had been held back one year when she was in elementary school. Though she was an average student in her academic performance, she excelled in other ways.

From a young age she was a baton-twirling majorette. A photo of Mary from when she was about 10 years old shows her in a parade through town. She’s amongst her peers, marching patriotically in matching military-inspired majorette uniforms. The costumes—short pleated skirts and long-sleeves tops—are all white with green details. Three lines of green cord adorn the torso, epaulettes puff the shoulders, and a wide green ribbon cinches the waist. White shoes and bobby socks cap it off, and they look terrific.

She continued with the majorettes, confidently wielding a baton, leading the band, and marching in parades, throughout her adolescent years into high school. Doubtless there were dozens of costumes she wore over the years in the Tanner house.

And as a high schooler, she was a part of the school’s gymnastics team and glee club. She learned hundreds of choreographies, and executed them with precision, while exuding joy. She was active and physical... and funny!

She had an unfussy style, with center-parted dirty-blonde hair, lightened by the sun. Her trademark was to wear a blue and white bandana on her head—her father “working kerchief,” her mom liked to call it.

She was the youngest in the family and they were her audience. She just wanted to entertain and make the room laugh. Mary performed skits in front of her family, like imitating her mother (a psychic who read tea leaves). Mary picked up the family’s Siamese cat and pretended to give him a reading. She held up the cat’s tail, held his rear end to her ear and listened carefully — “Yes, I think he’s feeling sad today.” Mary gave another reading, “Yes, I think he wants to play the polka.” She then proceeded to play the cat like an accordion while humming a tune. The cat pushed against Mary’s chest, fighting to escape, “Oh. Misread. The cat wants to be put down.”

Another time, Gail recalled how she picked up their big orange cat with a belly like balloon. She held him on her chest with his paws outstretched over her shoulder. When she would squeeze the cat’s belly it made a raaar sound that she could somewhat control. She would walk around “playing the cat” like a bagpipe for 5 or 10 minutes until either she or the cat had had enough.

For older brother Charlie Tanner, Mary, the youngest of his three sisters, was like a “pet.”

Mary just wanted the people around her to have a good time, and she wanted everyone to be in on the joke. Her friend Tim Ames later said, “She was a kind, gentle soul, everybody’s little sister.”

In 1977, during the summer after her sophomore year, she spent a lot of time at the local teen hangout—Glen-Mor Restaurant in Kennebunk—a restaurant that also had bowling lanes. Mary and her best friend, Dawn, were making such a racket laughing and talking that management told a staff member—Michael Higgins—tell them to quiet down. The girls “were persistent,” he later recalled, and he finally kicked them out. But they were undeterred, returning the next night, without a care in the world. Mary, Dawn, and Jackie formed an inseparable trio, and soon Michael became close friends with them. He later said, “They were like peas in a pod—the three of them. You’d see them most of the time. Their laughter was infectious. You loved it.” By the fall of 1977, Mary and Michael, who was 2 years her senior, began dating.

In the summer of 1978, she got a job waiting tables at Glen-Mor alongside Michael, and in April of that year became pregnant with Michael’s child. They went to her junior prom together in May. One of the last known photos of Mary was from that prom.

She was a free spirit. She loved to party and have fun. She—like many teenagers at the time—hitchhiked around town.

She was childlike... and a ruthless killer had taken advantage of her naïveté.

Friday, July 7, 1978 — Mary’s last day alive

After she was identified, police went to work right away to piece together the final moments of her life. Her body was discovered on Sunday afternoon, and her last known sightings were two days prior, on Friday, July 7th.

There was a huge Kennebunkport town celebration on the afternoon of the 7th called the Dump Parade, and Mary wasn’t about to miss it. She had tied her dad’s blue and white bandana around her head and left the Tanner home around 4:00PM. The last thing that she said to her parents was a note of gratitude: she was grateful that her father was willing to drive her at 5:00AM the next morning down to Waltham, Massachusetts, to be with her boyfriend and his family for a funeral, and she said she wouldn’t be back late.

What began as a silly joke years prior, had turned into a full-fledged parade and town celebration. The Kennebunkport Dump Association annual festival—The Dump Parade—was “a satirical celebration of the days when town dumps were places to meet and gossip and search for treasures.” Parade-goers would wear garments made of toilet paper, dresses out of fish nets, and hats of bottles and pipes. It featured a beauty contest for the “Dump Queen” and everyone was welcome to decorate a float with any creative assortment of garbage their heart desired. Local businesses looked forward to the event every year, saying it was the busiest weekend of the summer season. It was dubbed “the trashiest event of the year” in Kennebunkport.

It was a festive time of year for twin cities Kennebunk and Kennebunkport and there were, quote, “trash bashes” all over town that went until dawn.

Mary was amidst the festivities with her two close friends—Jackie O’Keefe and Debbie Deteso. Her best friend, Dawn, was at the parade, too, with her boyfriend and they encountered each other briefly. Mary then made her way to Glen Mor, the bowling alley and restaurant where she worked, while it was still light outside—around 7:00PM. Her boyfriend, Michael, was not there—he was already in Waltham, Massachusetts for his brother’s funeral.

Within a few hours, she moved spots again, this time hitchhiking with a classmate, Linda Lawrence, who was one year younger than her, to an outdoor field party in a remote spot, 3.5 miles west of Kennebunkport, off of Route 9, near Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge. The historical name of the spot is racist, so I’ll refer to it simply as “The Hill.” The location—according to local lore—was ideal because the elevation of the hill gave a prime view of cars coming up to the field from Route 9, and if Kennebunk’s finest were to arrive, the kids would have plenty of notice to scram. Kids parked their cars in the field and played music. A range of ages were present—from late teens to adults. Alcohol flowed freely, and considering it was 1978, there was likely no shortage of marijuana and LSD.

What follows the party at The Hill is hotly contested. Though there are multiple versions of what happened, we have stuck primarily to news accounts from 1978 to inform our understanding.

It was getting late, and she knew she had a very early morning upcoming to get to Massachusetts on time for the funeral. Around 11:30PM, Mary was ready to go home. But she couldn’t find a ride straight home—which was about 5.5 miles away, due north. She figured that she would have a better shot at finding a ride from the nearest town center—where Kennebunkport and Lower Kennebunk Village meet at an intersection called Cooper’s Corner—which was due east. Although the route was longer, she figured she would have no trouble getting a ride from there—especially considering how many party-goers would be out and about because of the Dump Parade Festivities. She got a ride from the party at “The Hill” (which was still ongoing) to Cooper’s Corner with her friends Jackie and her sister Candace. Once they got there, the two girls headed their separate ways, leaving Mary on her own.

Mary got a ride to Kennebunk Village, the town center that was just a mile from her home. The driver that brought her there has never been identified, though.

It was about midnight, and she was standing on the bridge over Mousam River in Kennebunk Village, looking for a ride to take her that final mile. A high school student who was a fellow majorette recalled seeing her thumbing a ride. Though she felt bad for Mary—especially with her being out so late on her own—their car was full and they were heading the opposite direction, so they drove on. They had a change of heart, though, and after a short time, turned back, planning to get her home somehow. But Mary was nowhere to be found. They assumed she had gotten a ride from somebody else, and they went on with their night.

This fleeting encounter on the bridge in Kennebunk Village was the last time that Mary was seen alive.

Saturday, July 8, 1978

On Saturday morning, Charles Sr. woke up to the loud noises of birds chirping and someone mowing the lawn. He looked at the clock to find it was well past 5:00AM, and Mary hadn’t woken him for the drive to Waltham. Groggy, Charles forced himself out of bed to see if his daughter had made it home, but she wasn’t curled up in her bed or making coffee in the kitchen. He knew how important it was to Mary to get down to Massachusetts, so he just figured she must’ve gotten a ride down the previous evening.

Meanwhile, in Waltham, Michael Higgins was burying his younger brother, Tommy, who was just 18 years old when he died earlier that week. He was thinking back to Monday, July 3rd—the day of the accident. Michael was driving right behind his brother on the Maine Turnpike as they were all headed to Kennebunk to attend a party. Tommy and his friend Bobby, who was with him in the car, lost control of the vehicle and hit a guardrail. The force of the crash ejected them both from the vehicle, and they died on impact. Michael had gone to Glen Mor to see Mary, and she comforted him. They spent the evening together before his friend’s father gave Mary a ride home. The next morning—which was the 4th of July—Michael went to church. After the morning service, he went over to Mary’s house and spent time with her. He recalled the warmth of her mother, Shirley, enveloping him in a big hug. He kissed Mary goodbye, but he had no idea it would be the last time he would see her alive. He left for Massachusetts that day. On Thursday, he called Mary with the details of the funeral, and she told him she would be there on Saturday. But Mary hadn’t arrived.

Michael was angry and confused, but surrounded by family. He tried to put her absence out of his mind and focus on the task at hand.

Back in Kennebunk, the Tanner family went about their daily routine, assuming Mary was with Michael.

That evening, another party took place—this one was a keg party at a spot that the local kids called “#10.” It was a wooded area just off Gracie Evans Field—the same field where Mary’s body would be discovered the following afternoon. They drank, danced, smoked, and chatted, all without having any idea that their friend lay lifeless nearby.

Early investigation

A team of state police detectives and local cops manned their command center at Park Street School, working 12-14 hour shifts every day that week. Sergeant Lawrence Gross, who at that time was a 10-year veteran with the state police, said, “The fatigue was tremendous; we worked a minimum of 100 hours the first week.”

They brought Michael in for questioning and asked him if he would submit to a polygraph. He readily agreed, and Mary’s father, Charles Sr., drove him to Portland to sit for the test. He passed, and after the interrogation, the cops said that he was, quote, “no longer a suspect in Mary’s death.”

On Wednesday, July 12th, the York County Coast Star printed Mary’s obituary in their morning paper. The plain, direct, language revealed nothing of the devastation that her death had caused.

Police efforts

The day after Mary’s funeral, Friday, July 14th, police set up a roadblock at Coopers Corner. They stopped all traffic and presented a color photo of Mary, asking drivers if they had seen the woman one week prior. On Monday, State Police Lieutenant Ray Lamontagne told the press that it had turned up nothing.

State Medical Examiner Henry Ryan told the York County Coast Star that they had collected and analyzed fingernail scrapings, but the results of that examination were never publicly revealed.

Police, by this point, had questioned 200 people, administered several polygraph exams, and checked numerous alibis. They even conducted a search spanning about 4 miles around Gracie Evans Field. Detective Sergeant Lawrence Gross said that they found nothing—“not even a scrap of someone else’s clothing.”

In the second week, police got a break. Two kids, who were 12 and 14 years old respectively, found some abandoned clothes while they were walking around West Kennebunk Village. It was reported at the time that it was a towel and shoes. Later—in 2013—it was reported that a pair of Levi’s brand blue corduroy jeans were recovered. It’s unclear if this is referring to the same discovery. Either way, police were quick to say in 1978 that there was no apparent connection to Mary.

By the end of the second week, police shut down their command post and started pulling staff.

1996 - Police receive a tip

In July of 1996 a strange tip came into the Maine State Police. An informant encouraged them to check the bed of an old rusty pickup truck parked at a farmhouse in Arundel—the next town over. And in August, the police did just that. The owner of the property on Log Cabin Rd, Larry Labrador, gave the police permission to search. There was a rusted green pickup bed on the property, covered with leaves, spare tailgates, pipes, and other junk. The owner said it had been there for about 10 years and attributed it to his nephew. State Police Detective Brian McDonough said that they took paint samples from the truck and would compare them to evidence collected back in 1978.

Charles and Shirley Tanner pass away

In August of 1996, Charles Sr. gave his one and only interview to the press about Mary.

He was 79 years old, had been diagnosed with cancer, and didn’t have much time left.

In speaking to Bill Nemitz with the Portland Press Herald, he said, “This is the first time I’ve ever talked to anyone about her like this.” Bill explained in his article, “[Charles Sr.] was trying to find words for the anger that had smoldered inside [him] for so long.”

“Maybe we can straighten a few things out,” he began. It wasn’t so much what was said, but what was unsaid. He continued, “[The papers] never said she was a good kid—who was known throughout this close-knit town, not for her wild ways, but for her quick smile and generous heart.”

Charles remembered coming home from work, sometimes late at night, and making the rounds to the kids’ rooms before bed, to find Mary sleeping, nose-to-nose, with her cat, Sam.

He concluded the interview, his voice breaking, saying, “A day hasn’t gone by I haven’t thought of her.”

Just a month later, on September 12th, 1996, Charles Sr. passed away at a Portland hospital. Bibber Memorial Chapel, the same funeral home that handled Mary’s services, handled his, too. He was buried next to her at Greenwood Cemetery in Biddeford.

In 2011, Shirley joined him at the age of 92—both of Mary’s parents died without knowing their daughter’s killer.

2013 - Modern reignition, memorial efforts

2013 was a big year for Mary’s case and Mary’s legacy. It was the 35th anniversary of her murder, and many of her friends and family came together to revitalize her case. In March, the Facebook page, “Justice For Mary,” was launched.

Long-time Kennebunk resident Shelley Wigglesworth, who was 9 years old at the time of Mary’s death, began writing about her case. Mary’s older brother, Charlie Jr., credited Shelley’s article as, quote “the spark that energized the movement.” Rik O’Neil, who had a long career at the Portland Press Herald, wrote a 3,000-word feature—one of the most thorough tellings to date—in June of 2013 in a local paper called “The Kennebunk Village.”

The group made custom T-shirts, bumper stickers, posters, and wrist bands to commemorate her life and fight for justice. They had a bench installed in her honor in Rotary Park made possible by the generous $2,000 donation of Kennebunk resident Craig Tufts. The park is only steps away from the Mousam River bridge where Mary was last seen. It bears a small bronze plaque that reads, “In loving memory of Mary Ellen Tanner, Kennebunk’s child.”

The Girl on the Bridge: The Mary Tanner Story

Rik O’Neil, a journalist and videographer, was struck by Mary’s story and the outflow of support from the community. He decided that he wanted to make a full-length video documentary on her case called “Girl on the Bridge.” He said, “I’m making this film because Mary Tanner spoke to me with an urgency and directness that I could not ignore,” explaining that instead of focusing on the gruesome details of her death, he wanted to document Mary’s brief but brilliant life.

He began by securing interviews with many of Mary’s friends and family and put together a short trailer for the film. He, alongside the community, created the Mary Tanner Foundation, a charitable organization, that would raise money for, and hold the copyright for the completed film. He estimated that the total cost of production would be $125,000, which would be raised in several phases.

He envisioned that it would debut in film festivals, and, if it performed well, he hoped that it would be picked up for distribution, with all proceeds to be, quote, “disbursed to charitable causes in Mary Tanner’s memory.”

Conflicting accounts on Friday and Saturday night

As he got into production, he ended up uncovering information that had never before been reported. Many of the details in our episode are from publicly released snippets of interviews he has conducted with those who have first-hand knowledge of the case.

One of the key discrepancies is the timing of when Mary left the party on The Hill and went to Cooper’s Corner. Contemporary newspaper coverage indicated that it was 11:30PM, but there were interview subjects who said it was closer to 9:00PM, which begged the question—what did she do between the hours of 9:00PM and midnight, when she was last seen. Another friend of Mary’s recalled seeing her head toward Gooch’s Beach with some friends, which was about a one-mile walk from Cooper’s Corner. Bill Lawrence, another friend, was sitting on a rock wall at Gooch’s Beach, drinking a beer with a friend, when he saw her approaching in the distance. They yelled out to one another; she came over and chatted with him for just a few minutes. She said she was going to hitchhike back home, and Bill said that he’d come with her after he finished his beer, but she was gone before he knew it, getting into a car with three other people he didn’t recognize. Bill shared it was a great regret of his that he let her leave alone that night.

Regardless of the order of events on Friday night, if the final sighting of Mary on the Mousam River bridge is to be believed, then the last people to see her alive (that have come forward) were the Wormwood sisters—Corine and Celeste—who saw her at midnight, just a mile from her home.

Sightings on Saturday

Even more confusing in this case, though, are modern accounts from people who claim to have seen Mary on Saturday, July 8th. I include them here to offer their stories, but there are some major hurdles to overcome to make these fit with the rest of her story.

A friend of Mary’s, Jane Needham, thought she saw Mary at the party at #10 on Saturday night. She wrote on Facebook, “The memory I see is her hiding behind someone’s back—she called me over and asked me if I had seen some particular person at the party. She was hiding from this somebody. Jane’s father gave a hitchhiker a ride, “later that weekend, during the daylight,” and she looked like the Tanner girl. Shelley Wigglesworth said, in a Facebook comment on the Justice For Mary Page, that she was contacted by several acquaintances of Mary’s who saw her at the Five and Dime in Kennebunk Village on Saturday. They said that she was waiting for a ride from an older local man. The girls all thought it was odd because the man was old enough to be her father. His identity was reported to authorities.

If these stories are true, and Mary was still alive on Saturday, these are some of the things to grapple with:

1.) Mary must’ve slept somewhere on Friday night that was not at her home. No one has come forward to identify this location.

2.) Mary would have voluntarily missed her boyfriend’s brother’s funeral in Waltham that she had previously committed to attend.

3.) Mary’s body, discovered on Sunday afternoon, had shown significant signs of decay. If she had not died until the late evening of Saturday night, she would have only been gone for—at the most—15 hours. The medical examiner estimated the time of her death in days, not hours.

4.) The State Police, in 1978, during the investigation, were told by witnesses that they saw Mary on Saturday, and this was their appraisal of those accounts: “Interviews with four witnesses who placed Miss Tanner at the party [at #10] have subsequently indicated they were “unsure” of their earlier statements. Her presence there has not been satisfactorily established.”

Lloyd Perry

In the 45 years since Mary Tanner’s death, the Maine State Police have never publicly named a suspect, but Kennebunk town residents have quietly speculated.

Lloyd Perry was carefully scrutinized in the early investigation. Some people referred to the party on Saturday night at #10 as, quote, “Lloyd’s party” or “Lloyd’s kegger.” He said, in his interview with Rik O’Neil, “I was a hellraiser. I used to have fast cars... loud cars... racing here, racing there. The police chief used to pull me over.” The police, in his initial interview, had more investigators present, and more cameras on him than in their typical questionings. They gave him a lie-detector test. In his modern interview, Lloyd denies that it was his party, and, with tears in his eyes, claims he is still baffled as to why his name ever came up. Police have never named Lloyd, and the only connection that he appears to have with Mary’s death is a familiarity with the location where her body was discovered, and the unlucky timing of having been involved with the organization a party nearby.

Bruce Foley

Another name that’s come up is Bruce Foley. He was 12 years Mary’s senior—Kennebunk High School class of 1967. He was out on bail at the time of Mary’s death pending the appeal of a sexual assault charge to the Maine Supreme Court. Several women in town have stories about Bruce’s stalking, violence and sexual aggression growing up and he was later convicted of holding a woman against her will and raping her. Under Minnesota law, he was classified as a sexual psychopath and a sexually dangerous person. Rik O’Neil traveled to Minnesota to interview him in prison in November of 2016. He denied having anything to do with Mary’s death. Mary’s sister, Beth, and others have said that Bruce had an alibi that was confirmed by police, and they do not believe Bruce was involved. In 2019, Bruce Foley died, maintaining his innocence until his death.

DNA evidence?

Kennebunk residents have bandied about names of potential suspects for years, and they all have one thing in common: they’re local. The state police believe it was someone local, too. Tim Ames said in 2013, “I’m pretty certain it was one of us. I’ve heard the names of several guys over the years, and sometimes I’ll see them... and think, ‘Are you the one?’”

The Tanner family—particularly Beth—believes she knows who killed her sister, though she has never named that individual publicly.

It’s unclear if there is any DNA evidence in this case, as it has been reported two ways. In June of 2013, one of the Tanners said that “It would still come down to a confession case. There isn’t enough DNA evidence to do any good.” But Beth, in her interview with the podcast, Locating the Lost, in 2022, said that there was some DNA evidence.

To me, the most-likely scenario is that Mary got a ride with someone—probably a local man that she was familiar with—who took her to an isolated location where she was raped and beaten to death. He then put her into his vehicle, drove her to Gracie-Evans Field, and dumped her naked body in the wee hours of Saturday morning. And perhaps this same killer struck 8 years prior, when he picked up Mary Olenchuk to give her a ride.

Mary Tanner’s Legacy

Today, all that is left of Mary’s life are memories.

Her friend Roxanne remembers typing class. Mary would sit right behind her and she would quietly ask, “Hey Rockie, sit back a little so I can sleep.” Typing class was Mary’s nap time.

Mary’s mother said, “For 18 years and three weeks, Mary had a good time.”

Her sister, Beth, said that her favorite song was a duet by Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr., released in 1976, called “You Don’t Have to be a Star.” It has a distinctive 70’s vibe—a nice groove, tambourine, flute licks, and Motown-inspired backup vocals. Its refrain is, “You don’t have to be a star to be in my show.” It’s about a quiet love that is humble and timeless.

I can’t help but think of Mary’s boyfriend and the love that he was robbed of. Michael revealed in an intimate interview that he has only loved three women in his life, and Mary was the first. Though they were quite young, there were talks of marriage. Perhaps Michael and Mary, in the spirit of love that permeated the 70s, dreamt of sharing a quiet love with a child that was never to be.

Mary’s sister, Gail, before her death, said, “She was our little sister. She was a wonderful kid. Everybody loved her. Everything she did... she did with love.”

If you have any information on the murder of Mary Ellen Tanner, please contact Maine State Police, Major Crimes Unit South at 207-624-7076 or submit a tip here.

This text has been adapted from the Murder, She Told podcast episode, Maine Unsolved: Mary Ellen Tanner, Parts One and Two. To hear Mary Tanner’s full story, find Murder, She Told on your favorite podcast platform.

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Mary Tanner, ~10 years old, with Beth *(Photo credit: Twitter, Mary Tanner Story)*

Mary Tanner, ~16 years old, second from right *(Photo credit: Twitter, Mary Tanner Story)*

Mary Tanner, ~17 years old, with Mike Higgins *(Photo Credit: The Mary Tanner Story)*

Kennebunk Dump Parade, 1982 *(Photo credit: Vicki Adams, Biddeford Journal Tribune)*

Map of where The hill is in Kennebunk — “The Hill” — a teenage hangout spot in Kennebunk at the high point just northwest of where it says “47” alongside the two dashed lines *(Photo credit: AllTrails)*

Mousam River Bridge, Kennebunk Village, last known sighting of Mary Tanner

Mousam River Bridge, Kennebunk Village, last known sighting of Mary Tanner *(Photo credit: Google Maps)*

Mary’s sister, Gail Tanner, died at 56 years old *(Photo credit: FindaGrave)*

Kennebunk High School, Class of 1979, 40th reunion, had a raffle that raised $600 for Mary Tanner

Sources For This Episode

Newspaper articles

Various articles from Evening Express, Journal Tribune, Portland Press Herald, The Bangor Daily News, The Kennebunk Village, The Weekly Sentinel, York County Coast Star, here.

Written by various authors including Amy Welch, Bill Nemitz, Dennis Bailey, Doug Bailey, Faith Gillman, Fran Harrison, Jeff Lagasse, Jill Higgins, Joel Barrett, Judith Hansen, Kevin Byron, Lee Burnett, Liz Gotthelf, Peg Hendrick, Rik O'Neal, Sara Smith, Melinda Noonan, Shelley Wigglesworth, and Vicki Adams.

Online written sources

'Police check new lead in 1978 slaying' (Portland Press Herald), 8/12/1996, by Jill Higgins

'Justice for Mary' (Facebook), created 3/17/2013

'The Mary Tanner Story' created 6/1/2013

'Who killed Mary Tanner?' (Seacoast Online), 6/27/2013, by Laura Dolce

'The mystery of Mary Tanner: Kennebunk family still waiting for answers 35 years after murder' (Wayback Machine), 6/27/2013, by Laura Dolce

'Brother of murdered Kennebunk student backs cold case bill' (Tri-County Independent), 2/25/2014, by Shelley Wigglesworth

'The Mary Tanner Story' (Facebook), created 7/7/2014

'ME - Mary Tanner, 18, Kennebunk, 7 July 1978' (Websleuths), 11/9/2014

'Family makes documentary about 36 year old cold case' (Wayback Machine), 11/10/2014

'Obituary for Gail June Tanner' (Bibber Memorial Chapel), 11/26/2014

'Mary Ellen Tanner' (FindAGrave), 3/27/2015