On a cold December evening in Biddeford, Maine, the life of 18-year-old Alivia Collette Welch, a White female, was tragically cut short. On December 29, 2012, Welch, a recent graduate of Thornton Academy and a nursing student at Southern Maine Community College, was fatally shot alongside her 19-year-old boyfriend, Derrick Thompson. The couple had been looking forward to a future full of promise, a future that was stolen from them in a sudden act of violence.
Welch was known by friends and family as a sweet and beautiful soul who had a gift for brightening any room she entered.
The events that led to the deaths of Welch and Thompson began with a dispute with their landlord, 74-year-old James Pak, over parking and snow removal at the apartment they rented. The argument escalated, and Thompson placed a 911 call to report that Pak was making threats. Police officers responded to the scene, but after speaking with both parties, they determined the conflict to be a civil matter and departed. Tragically, just minutes after the officers left, Pak entered the apartment armed with a handgun and opened fire.
Inside the apartment at the time of the shooting were Welch, Thompson, his mother Susan Johnson, and Johnson's six-year-old son. Pak shot Johnson, wounding her, and then fatally shot both Welch and Thompson. Johnson survived by pretending to be dead. Her younger son, who was hiding in another room, was physically unharmed but was a witness to the horrific events. The shooting sparked a standoff with police that lasted for several hours before Pak was taken into custody.
James Pak was arrested and charged with two counts of murder for the deaths of Alivia Welch and Derrick Thompson, and one count of attempted murder for the shooting of Susan Johnson. Initially, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. However, after undergoing psychological evaluations, he was found competent to stand trial. In February 2016, Pak changed his plea to guilty, stating a desire to spare the victims' families the further pain of a trial. He was subsequently sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for the murders, ensuring he would spend the remainder of his life in prison. In May 2024, James Pak died in the Mountain View Correctional Facility at the age of 86.
