Crime
Maine police arrested the victim’s former boyfriend, as the Maine Attorney General seek to charge him with murder, police said.
Alice Hawkes. Maine State Police
Police in Maine arrested the boyfriend of a woman whose murder had gone unsolved for nearly 40 years, officials announced.
On May 8, Maine police arrested Stephen Bouchard, 63, and charged him with murder in connection to the death of Alice Hawkes, Maine State Police said in a press release.
Bouchard and Hawkes were dating and lived together in a Westbrook, Maine apartment at the time of her murder, police said.
On Oct. 4, 1987, Bouchard left the home to run errands. He came back to the shared apartment and realized he was locked out, Maine State Police wrote previously in an online list of unsolved homicides.
The apartment’s landlord let himself and Bouchard into the home, and they found Hawkes’ body inside, police wrote.
“Her boyfriend stated he had called Hawkes earlier to advise he had locked himself out of his car. This was the last time she was heard from,” Maine State Police said.
A “comprehensive investigation” was conducted into the murder, but the case “eventually went cold,” the agency said on Friday.
In 2025, the agency’s Major Crimes Unit-Unsolved launched a “full reinvestigation” into Hawkes’ murder, Maine State Police said.
The Maine Attorney General’s Office decided to seek a murder charge against Bouchard as a result of the new investigation, police said.
Bouchard was taken to Cumberland County Jail and will be arraigned on a later date, police said.
Anyone with information about Hawkes’ death should contact the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit at 207-657-5710, the agency said.
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