In the quiet, early morning hours of Easter Sunday, April 16, 2006, the life of 57-year-old Joseph Gray, a White male, was brought to a violent and unexpected end in his Milo, Maine home. Gray was resting on his living room couch when his wife, Janice, was jolted awake by the frantic barking of their dogs. Peering out the window, she saw a figure in a black jacket standing at their front door.
Suddenly, a gunshot shattered the peace of the night, and Joseph Gray was struck.
He fell back onto the couch, urging his wife to call for an ambulance. A second shot rang out as Janice dove for the phone to call 911, hiding on the floor until police arrived. By the time help could reach him, Joseph Gray was gone.
The investigation into the seemingly random act of violence quickly escalated. Hours after Gray's murder, another man, 24-year-old William Elliott of Corinth, was also shot and killed at his home. Both Gray and Elliott were listed on Maine's public sex offender registry. This connection led investigators to believe the killings were not random but targeted.
The focus of the investigation soon turned to 20-year-old Stephen Marshall from Nova Scotia, Canada. A witness to one of the shootings provided a vehicle registration number that was traced to Marshall's father, who resided in Maine. After abandoning his father's pickup truck, Marshall boarded a bus bound for Boston. As police closed in and boarded the bus, Stephen Marshall took his own life, ending the brief but tragic manhunt. Investigators believe Marshall had compiled a list of names from the sex offender registry, leading him to the homes of Joseph Gray and William Elliott.
