A man is found murdered inside his burned mobile home In the small town of Whitneyville, Maine, the life of a 48-year-old White Caucasian man, Wayne Foss, came to a tragic and violent end on October 28, 2017. A commercial fisherman and skilled woodworker, Foss was discovered deceased inside his Middle Street mobile home after firefighters responded to a blaze in the early morning hours. While the rest of his family was away, the fire that engulfed his residence was deliberately set, turning a family home into a crime scene.
An autopsy later confirmed the devastating truth: Wayne Foss's death was a homicide. The cause of death was determined to be a combination of sharp force injuries and the inhalation of combustible materials from the fire that had been intended to conceal the crime.
For nearly six years, the investigation into the death of Wayne Foss continued, with detectives from the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit tirelessly following leads. The case, though challenging, was never abandoned. A significant breakthrough finally occurred in October 2023, when a Washington County Grand Jury handed down indictments against three individuals in connection with the 2017 homicide. The suspects were identified as Justin Matthews, then 35, of Robbinston, Maine, and two men from the Bronx, New York: 29-year-old Basilio Liranzo and 27-year-old Leanza Boney.
The arrests brought long-awaited progress in the case. Matthews was apprehended in Saco, Maine. Boney was taken into custody in New York City by a team of Maine State Police detectives and members of a U.S. Marshal's Task Force. The third suspect, Liranzo, was already incarcerated in the Maine State Prison on unrelated charges when he was indicted. Over the months that followed, all three men pleaded guilty to charges related to the death of Wayne Foss. Basilio Liranzo was sentenced to 16 years in prison for felony murder and arson. Leanza Boney received a sentence of 16 years with all but five years suspended for conspiracy to commit murder, to be followed by four years of probation. Justin Matthews, the last to be sentenced, received a 16-year sentence for felony murder with all but ten years suspended and will also serve four years of probation upon his release. The resolution of the case, which family members believed was connected to the illegal drug trade, brought a measure of justice after years of uncertainty.
