A woman's body is found floating in the water at the Robbinston Boat Landing In the late summer of 1984, Linda Maxwell, an 18-year-old White female, was enjoying the last days of the season in her hometown of Calais, Maine. On the evening of August 23rd, she was with friends at a popular local hangout, a parking lot then known as The Mart. It was a typical gathering spot for the town's youth, a place to catch up before the summer came to a close and thoughts turned to school and the future.
After spending time with her companions, Linda was seen leaving the parking lot, but she never made it home.
Her disappearance cast a pall over the small community. Two days later, the search for Linda came to a tragic end. Her body was discovered on August 25, 1984, along the rocky shoreline of the St. Croix River in the nearby town of Robbinston. An initial investigation determined the cause of death was saltwater drowning, but the circumstances were immediately deemed suspicious by authorities, launching a long and frustrating homicide investigation. Despite extensive efforts by the Maine State Police, no arrests were made, and as years turned into decades, Linda Maxwell's case went cold, leaving her family and the community without answers.
For over forty years, the case remained a painful open wound for the small Down East city, a story revisited in local papers with pleas for anyone with information to come forward. Investigators continued to receive tips over the years, and the case was never truly abandoned. Finally, following an intensive and expanded investigation by the Maine State Police's Major Crimes Unit, new evidence was presented to a grand jury. In the spring of 2025, a breakthrough emerged. An indictment was handed down for 65-year-old Raymond Brown, a man who lived in the nearby town of Pembroke at the time of the murder.
The suspect, who was in his mid-twenties in 1984 and had a significant criminal record at the time, was taken into custody on May 1, 2025, after a traffic stop in Bangor. The arrest, more than four decades after Linda's death, brought a sense of shock and relief to those who remembered the sweet, quiet girl whose life was cut short. Brown was charged with murder and held without bail, marking the beginning of a new chapter in the long quest for justice for Linda Maxwell.
