Cook held in Maine B&B murder

Boston Herald ^ | 9/5/2006 | By Joe Dwinell

[metesky]

Cook held in Maine B&B murder spree
By Joe Dwinell
Community Newspaper Company Managing Editor

Tuesday, September 5, 2006 - Updated: 03:20 PM EST

The 31-year-old cook accused of going on a murder spree in Maine “of horrific proportions” shot and dismembered the bodies of three female victims and shot and burned a man, police said today.
    The suspect, Christian Nielsen, also shot and killed three pet dogs in a slaughter police say took four days to complete.
    “This is the worst homicide in Maine in the past 14 years,’’ said Col. Craig Poulin, commander of the Maine State Police.
    The quadruple murder took place at a bed and breakfast near the popular Sunday River ski resort.
    “This is a crime of horrific proportions,” a solemn Poulin said, adding they do not expect to find any other victims.
    Detectives say Nielsen told them he first killed a Maine man on Friday, then two days later attacked the owner of the Black Bear Bed & Breakfast where he had been renting a room, according affidavits filed today as Nielsen made his initial court appearance.
    The owner’s 30-year-old daughter and a friend were killed when they arrived at the inn unexpectedly on Monday, the state police affidavits said, the Associated Press reports.
    Nielsen was charged with four counts of murder and ordered held without bail. He smiled as he left Oxford County Superior Court today, AP is reporting.
    The bodies of Julie Bullard, 65, owner of the Black Bear Bed & Breakfast, her daughter Selby, 30, and a third woman, Cindy Beatson, 43, were found at the Black Bear Bed & Breakfast, according to Maine State Police spokesman Steve McCausland.
    A body found in the woods 10 to 15 miles away in neighboring Upton was that of a fourth victim, James Whitehurst, 50, McCausland said.
    Nielsen had recently been renting a room at the Black Bear Bed & Breakfast, where the bodies of three women were found Monday. He worked at another bed and breakfast in nearby Bethel.
    Whitehurst’s remains were found north of Grafton Notch State Park, 10 to 15 miles away in the neighboring town of Upton, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.
    News swept across the communities in Maine’s western mountains.
    "We’re all just numb with shock," Robin Zinchuk, executive director of the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce, told the Associated Press.
     Police assured residents they had nothing to fear. All victims were accounted for, "and there is no danger," McCausland said.
    Police were called to the Black Bear early Monday evening at a time when many vacationers were streaming out of Maine at the close of the Labor Day weekend that marks the traditional close of the summer tourist season.
    Newry is near the New Hampshire line, about 75 miles northwest of Portland.
    Nielsen, who police said knew at least two of the victims, has family in western Maine but his last known address was in Farmington.
    Nancy White, co-owner of the Sudbury Inn, was stunned to learn that the cook she and her husband had hired this summer had been arrested for murder.
    "This is a surprise to me," White said. "He’s a reliable, soft-spoken employee who has cooked with us since late June."
    The phone rang unanswered Tuesday at the Black Bear, a white clapboard farmhouse with a red roof that was converted into a six-room bed-and-breakfast with a pool and tennis courts.
    Nielsen had a history of driving offenses that included an arrest for drunken driving, but nothing more serious, Farmington police said. His license was revoked a year ago, said Farmington Lt. Jack Peck.
    Maine is a state known for its low crime rate, so the killings came as a shock.
    Maine’s last quadruple murder occurred on Dec. 3, 1992, when Virgil Smith set fire to a tenement at the foot of Portland’s Munjoy Hill neighborhood, killing a woman, two men and a 10-month-old baby. McCausland said Smith was upset after his girlfriend broke up with him.
    Earl Losier shot and killed four people, including his brother, at a neighbor’s apartment in Bangor on March 19, 1988, because of a loud stereo that disturbed him.

[Red Badger]

The Bates' School of Hotel - Motel Management graduate?>..........

[wideawake]

I wonder what happened to those kids who murdered those two professors in Vermont a couple of years back. Those were some brutal murders.

[TexasCajun]

Original headline:

Christian held in Maine B&B murder

[metesky]

The "alleged" perp...

[twigs]

Mrs. White should feel very, very fortunate that she and her husband are still alive. How awful!

[metesky]

Not at The Herald site.

[billorites]

[butternut_squash_bisque]

"He’s a reliable, soft-spoken employee who has cooked with us since late June."

I can't even imagine *what* the appetizers were made of. Yuk.

[the invisib1e hand]

they may not go often, but when they, they really go.

I stayed at an inn in northern NH for a weekend this summer. What I noticed when I gassed up in town was just how weird the younger locals were. One kid, screwed up on something, singing with headphones on at an intersection, sort of drooling and giving everyone the evil eye.

I mean, it's not like there were more than a few hundred people in the entire town. Made me wonder what the rest of his week was like; and what sort things they did in their basement get-togethers.

Pity that was one of the lasting images of the weekend. I thought, no, I really wouldn't want my kids growing up in this town.

Anyay, tragic and weird story. Very sickening.

[martin_fierro]

"This is a surprise to me," White said. "He’s a reliable, soft-spoken employee who has cooked with us since late June."

Yeah, `and he was probably an Honor Student too.

The phone rang unanswered Tuesday at the Black Bear

DUH. Who's left?

[fatnotlazy]

Alas, you just never know. And there is no such thing as a safe community.

[Mr. Lucky]

This is the worst homicide in Maine in the past 14 years...

I wonder what he thinks the best homicide was.

[metesky]

Hanover, NH, near Dartmouth. They were Dartmouth professors, IIRC.

[dfwgator]

Yes, a diploma in motel management can be your passport to prosperity, independence, and security, but are you motel material? Let's find out with a simple quiz.


Question 1: A guest loses the key to her room. Would you
A) Give her a duplicate key
B) Let her in with your passkey
C) Hack her to death with a kitchen knife

Question 2: Which of the following is the most important in running a successful motel?
A) Cordial atmosphere
B) Courteous service
C) Hack her to death with a kitchen knife

[TexasCajun]

That alt headline is somthing Rooters or NYTime would do without hesitation.

[metesky]

Aha! Ya gotta use sarcasm tags with a thick head like me...
:O(

[armymarinemom]

The perp will get life but the gun gets a death sentence. Makes sense huh?

[CremeSaver]

Ever notice that whenever there was a murder she was always around? Hmmmmm.....?

[Monti Cello]

This must be the crazy chef with the knife whose wireless service kept cutting out while he was trying to order pork.