Maine Police Turn to Facebook for Cold-Case Tips

The State Police have jurisdiction over all homicide investigations outside Portland and Bangor and detectives have been working with Scarborough investigators on both cases.

McDonough said he spoke with Scarborough Chief Robert Moulton about the page on Wednesday. His only concern, he said, is that detectives might be inundated with leads that don't pan out. But, he said, he's looking forward to seeing the volume and quality of the leads. The department is in the process of updating its own Facebook and Web pages, he said.

Periodically, representatives from the Attorney General's Office, Office of the State Medical Examiner and police agencies involved in the case gather to review it and brainstorm new approaches to the investigation. The last time they all met to discuss Ouellette's case was two years ago.

"There wasn't anything substantial to kind of press forward on," McDonough said, though there was some additional work done by the medical examiner. "Since then, we haven't had any new information."

Although he would not speak specifically about the Scarborough cases, McDonough said that often cold cases are not a mystery, but a matter of proof.

"In over 90 percent of those cold cases, we've got a very, very good idea of what happened and who's responsible," he said. "Solving a case and knowing what happened is different than proving a case beyond a reasonable doubt. We're just missing that last piece of evidence in these cases to push them over the top and reach that standard of beyond a reasonable doubt."

Copyright 2013 - Portland Press Herald, Maine

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