Suspicious deaths in an idyllic seaside neighborhood and detective work that factors to poison sound like themes from a traditional homicide thriller. However the victims on this Maine whodunnit had been bushes that stood in the best way of a rich household’s oceanfront view, allegedly felled by well-heeled killers who, whereas ostracized and publicly shamed, stay free.
Wealth and hubris gas the story of a politically related Missouri couple who allegedly poisoned their neighbor’s bushes to safe their million-dollar view of Camden Harbor. The incident that was unearthed by the sufferer herself — the philanthropic spouse of L.L. Bean’s late president — has united native residents in outrage.
To make issues worse, the herbicide used to poison the bushes leached right into a neighboring park and the city’s solely public seaside seashore. The state legal professional basic is now investigating.
“Anybody dumb enough to poison trees right next to the ocean should be prosecuted, as far as I’m concerned,” stated Paul Hodgson, echoing the view of many exasperated residents in Camden, a neighborhood of 5,000 nestled on the foot of mountains that sweep upward from the Atlantic Ocean and overlook a harbor full of lobster boats, yachts and schooners.
If this had been a made-for-TV drama, the story set in opposition to the backdrop of this quaint village would have all of it: Rich out-of-state villains, a sleuthing member of the venerable L.L. Bean household, and the identical highly effective chemical used to avenge Alabama’s loss on the soccer area to archrival Auburn.
Amelia Bond, former CEO of the St. Louis Basis, which oversees charitable funds with greater than $500 million in property, introduced the herbicide from Missouri in 2021 and utilized it close to oak bushes on the waterfront property of Lisa Gorman, spouse of the late Leon Gorman, L.L. Bean’s president and grandson of L.L. himself, in keeping with a pair of consent agreements with the city and the state pesticide board.
Bond’s husband, Arthur Bond III, is an architect and the nephew of former U.S. Sen. Package Bond. Their summer season house, owned by a belief, is located instantly behind Gorman’s house, farther up the hill.
When the bushes and different vegetation started dying, Amelia Bond instructed Gorman in June 2022 that the tree didn’t look good and supplied to share the price of eradicating them, Gorman’s lawyer wrote in a doc.
As a substitute, Gorman had the bushes examined. Quickly, legal professionals had been concerned.
Greater than $1.7 million in fines and settlements later, the bushes at the moment are gone and the harbor view from the Bond’s house is improved. However the chemical has leached right into a neighboring park and seashore, leaving the Bonds doubtlessly on the hook for additional monitoring and remediation, and Maine’s legal professional basic has agreed to additional examine the incident.
The herbicide — Tebuthiuron — was the identical one utilized in 2010 by an indignant Alabama soccer fan to kill the Toomer’s Nook oak bushes at Auburn College, following a Crimson Tide loss to their archrival. The incident earned jail time for Harvey Updyke, who acknowledged poisoning the bushes.
Tebuthiuron contaminates soil and doesn’t break down, so it continues to kill crops. At Auburn College, it took the removing of about 1,780 tons (1,615 metric tons) of contaminated materials to realize negligible ranges of the chemical within the soil.
Wanting eradicating the soil, the one different resolution is dilution — ready for nature to skinny out the focus of the herbicide to secure ranges for crops. It might take six months to 2 years for it to be diluted sufficient to not endanger to crops, stated Scott McElroy, an Auburn professor specializing in weed science and herbicide chemistry.
Again in Maine, Tom Hedstrom, chair of the Choose Board, stated his job usually requires discovering consensus on the best way to proceed with delicate political issues. However this time there is no such thing as a want as a result of residents are united of their anger.
Hedstrom stated he, too, is appalled by the habits.
“Wealth and power don’t always go hand in hand with intelligence, education and morals,” he stated. “This was atrocious and gross and any other word you want to use to describe abhorrent behavior.”
The Bonds have paid a worth for his or her actions, which they acknowledged within the consent agreements.
They paid $4,500 to resolve Maine Board of Pesticides Management Board violations for unauthorized use of an herbicide that was utilized inappropriately and never allowed for residential use, $180,000 to resolve violations with the city and one other $30,000 for added environmental testing, in keeping with paperwork. In addition they paid greater than $1.5 million to Gorman in a authorized settlement, in keeping with a memo from Jeremy Martin, the city’s planning and growth director.
A lawyer for the Bonds stated they don’t have any remark, however they “continue to take the allegations against them seriously. They continue to cooperate with the town of Camden, state of Maine and the Gormans, as they have done over the last two years.”
A lawyer for Gorman declined remark.
Rep. Vicki Doudera, D-Camden, stated she intends to handle the $4,500 most positive that the Maine Board of Pesticide Management Board was allowed to evaluate. One among her concepts is a sliding scale that accounts for scope of injury and intent.
“It makes me so livid,” Doudera stated. “This situation, the minute I heard about it, I thought, ’Wow! These people are going to get a slap on the wrist. That’s just not right.”
On a latest afternoon, nobody was house on the Bond’s residence whereas folks walked their canines lower than 500 ft (150 meters) away on Laite Memorial Seaside, the place the herbicide that’s deadly to aquatic crops has been detected.
Camden resident Dwight Johnson described as “underhanded” the best way Amelia Bond feigned being neighbor by providing to share the prices of eradicating bushes that she’d poisoned. Lynn Harrington, one other city resident, questioned whether or not the Bonds might present their faces round city, the place they’re members of the Camden Yacht Membership.
Some residents say the episode suits with the well-worn stereotype of rich summer season residents “from away” — the Maine time period for outsiders — working roughshod over full-time residents.
However some residents pushed again in opposition to casting summer season residents as hassle makers.
Hodgson stated Camden shouldn’t be with out its personal rule-bending characters in a neighborhood the place there are many year-round residents who’re each rich and entitled. He stated some residents in the neighborhood the place the median earnings is just below $93,000 — excessive for Maine, the poorest state in New England — have been recognized to chop down bushes, realizing it’s unlawful.
“They just pay the fine because they have plenty of money,” Hodgson stated. “That’s the town we live in.”
