Dark Downeast - The Murders of David Nixon & Steven Ray Johnson (Maine)

Episode Date: September 18, 2023

MAINE, 1987: On the night of June 8, 1987, David Nixon had just hung up the phone with his father. He called back home to let his folks know that he was staying over at their family beach house in Kennebunkport, Maine for one more night. That phone call was the last contact David ever had with his family. Sometime after he put the phone back on the hook, David was killed just steps from the house on Goose Rocks Beach.The investigation into the murder of David J. Nixon would span the entire eastern seaboard and even extend into Canada before the suspect was finally apprehended. His time on the lam would result in a second violent homicide. View source material and photos for this episode at darkdowneast.com/davidjnixon Dark Downeast is an audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.Follow @darkdowneast on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTokTo suggest a case visit darkdowneast.com/submit-case

It was a Sunday evening in June of 1987, and David Nixon had just hung up the phone with his father. He called back home to let his folks know that he was staying over at their family beach house in Kennebunkport, Maine for one more night, and would drive straight to work back in Westport, Connecticut in the morning. That phone call was the last contact David ever had with his family. Sometime after he put the phone back on the hook, David was killed just steps from the house on Goose Rocks Beach. The investigation into the murder of David J. Nixon would span the entire eastern seaboard and even extend across the border into Canada before a suspect was finally apprehended. And unfortunately, his time on the run would result in a second violent homicide.

I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is the story ofold David J. Nixon was on his way to Kennebunkport, crossing the arched Piscataqua River Bridge from Portsmouth, New Hampshire into Kittery, Maine, no doubt passing the brand new welcome sign that greeted all visitors traveling up I-95 into the Pine Tree State. 1987 was the year that the famous state slogan, "'The Way Life Should Be' was born, and the white letters were unmissable

against a royal blue backdrop." David lived in Naga Tuck, Connecticut, but his parents had a summer home in Kettabunkport, right off Kings Highway on Goose Rocks Beach. He had the weekend off from his job waiting tables at Natisco's Red Barn restaurant in Westport, Connecticut, and he made plans to head to Maine to meet up with his friend, Mogan. Kennebunkport, a popular tourist town itself, is about 30 minutes north along the coast from Agunquit, another well-known and beloved coastal destination celebrated for its artistic community, stunning beaches,

and quaint seaside hotels and inns catering to summer people and folks from away. Agunquit, in the early and mid-1980s, was also beginning to blossom into the vibrant LGBTQ plus destination it's known to be today. An article published in Torso magazine in the 80s called Agunquit a quote booming gay village and other sources say the town has been a welcoming LGBTQ plus community for at least a century. As Agunquit grew in popularity as a resort town so did the need for staff at local restaurants and hotels. Many of these staff, even today, come from abroad and are often given housing on site as part of their employment. That was the case for a man known as Mogan Bergen. At least, that was the story he told.

When he first arrived in the Agunquit area, Mogan Bergen got a job at the inn at Two Village Square in Agunquit, and he was allowed to live in a room there. A man who lived in the next room over from Mogen at the inn said that Mogen introduced himself as a Danish immigrant, though he spoke with an English accent. Mogen explained that he picked up the English accent at school in England. Sometimes, though, the accent seemed to disappear. As reported by the Journal Tribune, Mogan lost the accent when he was angry,

like one night on Memorial Day weekend in 1987, when he and two friends tried to get into a popular disco in Agunquit called The Front Porch. The bar was barely 500 feet away from the inn where Mogan worked, and when the trio rolled up to the door, the bouncer asked for their IDs. Mogan didn't have his on him, so he and one of the friends doubled back to his room at the inn to grab it. According to reporting in the Journal Tribune, the friends spotted the name printed on front of the ID, and it wasn't Mogan Bergen. It was Dean Curtis. The friend asked Mogan what that was all about, and Mogan explained that Dean Curtis was the name of his cousin who lived in Orlando, Florida. Later,

though, Mogan told another co-worker at the inn that his name was actually Dean Curtis, but his friends called him Mogan. Back at the front porch, Mogan, or Dean, was still refused entry. The bouncer just wouldn't let him in. All of the sudden, it was like someone popped the cork off a shaken bottle of champagne, but this wasn't a celebration. Mogan was mad and yelled that he was going to burn the place down. Mogan's accent disappeared as he shouted. There are varying accounts of how this person, known as Mogan Bergen, came to meet David J.

Nixon. But whatever version is true, we know that the pair knew each other in the summer of 1987 and they had some kind of relationship, possibly more than just friends. One night during that summer of 1987, Mogan told the innkeeper at the inn where he worked that he'd met someone, a man named David, and it seemed that David liked him a lot. Mogan confided in the innkeeper that he was happy someone cared about him, but he wasn't sure if he wanted anything serious. When David arrived in Maine that June weekend, it was to spend time with the man he knew as Mogan Bergen, and the pair was seen together

around town and at David's parents' house on Goose Rocks Beach. Mogan and David hung out at the beach house on the afternoon of June 8, 1987, and a neighbor saw them tinkering on David's car in the driveway around 4.30 p.m. According to court records, they later ventured out to the shops to pick up some ice and a bottle of champagne around 7 p.m., and then shortly after left Kennebunkport and headed down to Mogan's room at the Inn in Agunquit, arriving around 8 p.m. By 10 o'clock that night, though, David was back at the Goose Rocks Beach house. He called his dad from the landline there, telling his father that he'd be hitting the road by 5 a.m. the next day. His original plan was to be home that day, but instead he was staying an extra night

and would drive straight to work in Connecticut the next morning. He mentioned to his dad that he and his friend, Mogan, had just changed the oil in his car earlier that day in preparation for the three-and-a-half-hour drive home. After saying goodbye to his father, David put the phone back on the hook and returned to his evening. At some point over the course of the night, he and his friend Mogan ventured outside to the powdery sand and

frothy white waves that Goose Rocks Beach is known for. Exactly what happened next, and why, is known only to David and the man he knew as Moken Bergen. In the early afternoon of June 9th, 1987, a woman walked onto Goose Rocks Beach with her children and nephew in search of the perfect spot for a picnic. As they trekked over the cool sand along the tideline, she noticed something in the water near the inlet of Little River on the north side of the beach. She walked over to the floating object, still unsure of what it was, even when she was standing over it.

The woman reached down, thinking it was a rubber raft or some other innocuous nautical item, when the outline of a human body finally registered in her mind. Without hesitation, she ran to the nearest residence, keeping the children far away from what she'd just discovered. The homeowners, a husband and wife called 911, and soon the unique powdery white sand of Goose Rocks Beach in the quaint seaside village of Kennebunkport, was swarming with police. First responders to the scene found the body of a man wrapped in a blanket, though underneath he was wearing only socks and underwear. It was unclear how long he'd been there, washed up on the sand.

As emergency responders and police descended onto the scene, they realized that the man appeared to have multiple stab wounds. Amidst the sand and saltwater, investigators quickly found several items believed to be related to the body. There was blood on the beach that Tess later revealed belonged to their victim. A sweater, a pair of pants, and two wine goblets were collected and tagged as evidence. It's unclear precisely how police identified the man found washed up on the beach. Maybe it had to do with the proximity to the beach house owned by his parents, but regardless, it wasn't long before they had a name and confirmed that the man was 30-year-old David J. Nixon. A later autopsy confirmed that he died as the result of four stab wounds to his upper back. David's family's second home on Goose Rocks Beach wasn't far from

where his body was found, and so the investigation continued at the cottage. Police found even more clues as to how David spent his final hours. Inside the house, investigators found an empty champagne bottle still sitting on ice, as well as a bottle of Irish Miss liqueur. Both were dusted, and technicians were able to lift at least one fingerprint that didn't belong to their victim. Meanwhile, David's car, a dark green 1976 Chevrolet Malibu with license plate DJN56, was missing from the driveway and his wallet and credit cards were nowhere to be found either. Between witness statements and evidence at the scene, investigators had a

hot trail to follow from the very start. Their suspect wouldn't make it easy, though, and his tear of crime and violence would continue as agencies across multiple states and Canadian provinces tried to catch up with him. Another man would lose his life by the time police were finally able to track him down on the other side of the United States. By June 19, 1987, Maine State Police had issued a warrant for the suspect in David J. Nixon's murder. An affidavit filed with the Biddeford District Court named 24-year-old Dean Alton Curtis as David's alleged killer. According to the affidavit, Curtis was also known by an assumed name, Mogan Bergen.

The affidavit states that fingerprints on the wine bottles and glasses at David's parents' summer home came back as a match to Dean Alton Curtis. The wine glasses with prints on them matched two more wine glasses found on the beach near bloodstains in the sand, about 350 yards away from David's body. Police had searched Dean's apartment in the days following the discovery of David's body and found two notes addressed to Dean's assumed name, Mogan. The notes were signed David and included the phone number as well as the address to David Nixon's parents' home on Kings Highway. Dean Curtis had been living in the Agunquit area for just about three weeks at the time of David's death, and in case it's not obvious, he wasn't a Danish immigrant who went to school in England.

Dean Curtis was originally from Kittering, Maine, and had previously lived in Bangor. The early investigation into Dean Alton Curtis for the murder of David Nixon revealed heaps of evidence. Police interviewed a witness who stated he, too, had a relationship with a man he knew as Mogan. According to the affidavit, the witness said Mogan showed him a knife with a black handle and a 5-7 inch blade. Mogan told the man that if he ever cheated, Dean would kill him. In the first few days after David's body was discovered, police ran checks on his credit card and telephone card that appeared to be missing from his personal belongings at the beach house. They discovered multiple transactions on the cards after the estimated

time of David's death. Between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. on June 9th, David's card was used to buy gas at the Westboro exit off the Massachusetts Turnpike. Police quickly deduced that David's killer was making a run for it and funding his escape with David's accounts. The affidavit lists several more transactions, including a camera and film purchase at a store in Newark, New Jersey, around 11.30 a.m. on the morning of June 9th. Investigators spoke with the shop owner there, showing him a picture of their suspect, Dean Curtis. Yes, the shop owner told them,

that's the guy who bought the camera and film. Dean was leaving a very easy-to-trace trail behind him, dropping a new pin on the map every time he swiped David's credit card. His next purchase was a plane ticket on Continental Airlines out of Newark International Airport. Kennebunk police detective Gary Ronan traveled to Newark from Maine to follow up on tips that a car matching the description of David's 76 Chevy Malibu was parked in the airport parking lot. Sure enough, there it was. The license plate confirmed that it was in fact David's car. A subsequent search of the vehicle uncovered several pieces of evidence inside, including towels, a Sony radio box, a Macy's shopping bag, and sand on the floor underneath both of the front seats. A television set was sitting on the back seat,

and a TV had apparently been missing from Dean's room at the inn in Agunquit. Investigators were able to trace Dean's flight information down the East Coast to Florida, his breadcrumbs of credit card transactions leading to the Marriott Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, where witnesses say a man matching Dean Alton Curtis's description stayed between June 9th and 10th. The Journal Tribune's Eric Wickland spoke with Maine State Police Information Officer Richard Moore, who said that the investigation of David Nixon's murder had become a nationwide search, but that the interstate investigation was concentrating its efforts on one specific area.

He refused to disclose that specific area at the time. These details came out more than 10 days after Dean had supposedly left the Florida hotel. With that much of a head start, he could be anywhere. On July 5th, 1987, across the United States border in Mississauga, Ontario, emergency responders were about to encounter a terrible scene. 35-year-old customs agent Stephen Ray Johnson was found in his luxury apartment with multiple stab wounds to his chest. A pathologist later determined that Stephen had been dead at least a week when his body was finally found. Two weeks prior to the grim discovery, Stephen had started a two-week vacation.

A few days into that vacation, on June 26th, he was at the dentist's office. According to the Bellingham Herald, that's the last time anyone saw Stephen Ray Johnson alive. But if you were looking at his credit card transactions on the days immediately following that dental appointment, you'd think Stephen was alive and well taking himself on a little shopping tour on the west immediately following that dental appointment, you'd think Stephen was alive and well taking himself on a little shopping tour on the west coast of Canada. However, as store employees would later state, the man swiping the card didn't look like Stephen. Stephen would have been returning to work

at Pearson International Airport on July 6th, but a few days before the end of his two-week vacation on July 3rd, a family walking around a shopping center in Kamloops, British Columbia, found Stephen Ray Johnson's passport and his customs badge. They turned the items into police. That same weekend, tenants in the Mississauga apartment building where Stephen lived complained to management about a bad odor coming from his unit. Police were called to Stephen's apartment for a wellness check, and that's where they found him, dead. Following the discovery of his body, officials in Canada sent out a bulletin

with the description of Stephen's vehicle, a brand new 1987 black Chrysler LeBaron convertible, which seemed to be missing. The description circulated throughout Canada and U.S. border crossing stations, as well as law enforcement agencies on the West Coast. Investigators considered the possibility that Stephen's murder was somehow related to his job as a customs officer, but a probe into the connection between his work and his killing dismissed this theory. In other newspaper reports at the time, police were also exploring the possibility that Stephen's murder was related to his sexual orientation. Around 3.15 p.m. on July 14, 1987, a customs inspector from the Peace Arch border station in Blaine, Washington,

watched as a black convertible rolled into the checkpoint. The customs inspector pulled up the license plate on his computer, and red flags immediately started waving in his head. Dean Kahn wrote for the Bellingham Herald that the plate number had been reported stolen in Calgary, Alberta, and so the inspector proceeded cautiously with the man behind the wheel. The inspector asked a few routine questions and then told the driver to pull over to the side so they could continue talking. The driver appeared to comply at first, but then quickly stepped on the gas and sped away down Interstate 5. The customs inspector alerted local authorities,

and soon the description of the driver and the vehicle were broadcast across the state of Washington. It wasn't until 8 p.m. that the black convertible, a Chrysler LeBaron, was spotted near the Alger exit on I-5. Officials from multiple agencies, including U.S. Customs and the Mount Vernon Police, had joined the chase. The driver exited the highway, gaining speed, and officers matched his acceleration, reaching nearly 100 miles per hour on Highway 9 near Big Lake.

And then, suddenly, the driver slammed on his brakes and skidded off the shoulder of the road. He stepped out of the car and raised his hands in surrender as officers approached with their firearms drawn. The man did not resist arrest. He identified himself as Dean Alton Curtis. When he was finally in custody, authorities learned that the man they'd apprehended on charges of eluding a police officer was the same man wanted for the murder of David J. Nixon in Maine, and now the murder of Stephen Ray Johnson in Canada, and a slew of other crimes across the United States, too. Dean Alton Curtis was placed in a Washington jail as he awaited extradition to face the murder charges back in Maine.

Canadian officials had also brought first-degree murder charges against him for the death of Stephen Ray Johnson, but they would wait until Maine was finished with him before they decided if they'd extradite him to Ontario. At the time, Curtis was also wanted on larceny warrants in Nevada and California for writing a bad check in Florida, and Washington State was considering bringing charges against him for the high-speed chase that resulted in his capture. Reporting in the Bangor Daily News noted that when Dean was taken into custody, police found a credit card belonging to David Nixon still in his possession. The investigation following his arrest revealed that Dean had been using both David's and Stephen's identifications and credit cards throughout Canada. Law enforcement in Montreal were looking into the theft of credit cards, money, and a computer

from yet another man, too. The victim who reported the thefts knew the man who stole his stuff as David J. Nixon, though it was obvious by then that it was actually Dean Curtis. Dean was believed to have used David's name along with at least a half dozen other aliases. Like David's name, authorities learned that some of the other aliases Dean used were also the real names of men that Dean knew. During this time, investigators on Stephen Johnson's case learned that Dean and Stephen were either in a relationship or had met up at least once in the previous year. They had plans to meet up again during Stephen's two weeks off. Officials were unclear on the motive for his killing, but newspaper reports include mention of a possible argument that led

to the stabbing. Dean Curtis waived extradition proceedings in Washington state, and so Maine State Police hopped a flight to the West Coast to retrieve their murder suspect. He was set to appear in York County Superior Court in Maine in July of 1987. He walked into the courtroom wearing faded jeans, a white button-down shirt, and sneakers, escorted by police officers. Dean's hands were uncuffed as he sat before the judge with his court-appointed counsel to hear the charges against him. When Judge Alexander McNichols asked if Dean Curtis understood the charges, Curtis responded with a soft yes. Eric Wickland reported for the Bangor Daily News that the arraignment lasted only 10 minutes, just long enough for Curtis to enter a plea of innocence. A week later, the defense team for Dean Curtis, now composed of two court-appointed attorneys,

asked Superior Court Judge Roland Cole for their client's reserved right to change his plea from innocent to not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. According to the Biddeford Journal-Tribune, Dean's attorneys plan to file a motion requesting that the court approve a psychiatric evaluation. The court ultimately approved this evaluation, and it would be completed that fall at the Augusta Mental Health Institute, also referred to as AMHI. The examination, according to one of Curtis's attorneys and reported by Michelle Valway in the Journal Tribune, would include physical and neurological evaluations to determine whether there were any

quote-unquote imbalances of organic fluids in Dean's brain. The attorneys reportedly stated that Dean had been suffering from headaches, and the evaluation could diagnose any disorders, infections, head trauma, headaches, or brain tumors, ostensibly to explain away why Dean was driven to such a hideous crime, and that he wasn't fit for trial. By December of 1987, though, the evaluations of Dean Alton Curtis by a state psychiatrist found that he was perfectly competent to stand trial and, quote, not suffering from any mental disease or defect. Dean's lawyers were waiting for their own independent evaluation to come back. Having both a state and defense eval was commonplace, but whether that independent report found anything different is unclear. Meanwhile, the defense pushed other motions in front of the judge in hopes of getting statements

and evidence suppressed ahead of trial in early 1988. When Curtis was taken into custody after the high-speed chase in Washington state, he apparently made some incriminating statements to Canadian officials. Dean's defense counsel claimed that he made the statements before he was read Miranda rights and therefore the statements shouldn't be admissible. However, in a two-page decision, the judge found that the officers had properly advised Dean Curtis of his rights and he was well aware of the rights

when he voluntarily waived those rights as he started talking. The judge ruled that the statements he made while in custody were fair game and could be presented to a jury at trial, which was slated to begin in February of 1988. Jury selection for the murder trial of Dean Alton Curtis began on February 16, 1988. As the proceedings unfolded in York County Superior Court,

Assistant Attorney General Eric Wright was expected to bring in dozens of witnesses from across the country and Canada to testify against Curtis and, quote, weave a tapestry of guilt. Wright said in his opening statement, no third person saw Curtis kill Nixon, but we will prove he did through his words and actions after the murder, end quote. The prosecution began to paint a picture of the man they alleged killed David Nixon. Though he sat in the courtroom that day with dark, close-cropped hair, the top of Dean's head was bleached blonde

when he got a job at the inn at Two Village Square in a gun quit under the name Mogen Bergen. He introduced himself as that Danish student, just one of the identities he was known to assume. The day before he was killed, David was seen in the company of the man known around town as Mogen Bergen. Another man who knew Dean as Mogen testified that he saw a small knife in Mogen's apartment just a few days before David Nixon was found with stab wounds on Goose Rocks Beach. Mogen had told the witness that he got the knife after he was mugged in New York. Quote,

He wanted it for his defense so that no one else would take advantage of him. End quote. On the second day of testimony, the prosecution called a Canadian man named Eric to the stand. Eric told the jury that he actually knew the man sitting at the defendant's table not as Dean or as Mogan, but as David Nixon. Dean, parading as David, came into his Montreal restaurant on June 9th or 10th of the previous year, but the two men had met the winter prior, and Dean introduced himself as David then too. Eric said that the time they met up at the

restaurant in June of 1987, Dean told him he ran out of money and didn't have anywhere to go. He asked Eric if he could crash at his place in Montreal, and Eric agreed. Dean stayed there for a few days, and during that time, he told Eric about his quote-unquote lover back in Maine who had died by suicide just a week earlier. The assistant AG asked Eric if Dean told him why the man took his own life, and Eric said that he was told the man's family, quote, could not accept that he was gay, end quote. Over the course of his stay in Montreal, Eric began to learn more about the man he thought was named David Nixon. Dean accidentally let slip one day that his family name was Curtis, and Eric quizzed him on it. Is your last name Nixon or is it Curtis? Dean backpedaled and said that his mother's last

name was Curtis, and that's what he meant. According to Jonathan Gold's reporting for the Journal Tribune, Eric decided to do some snooping around when Dean was out of the house one day. Inside his suitcase, Eric found 10 credit cards, but only one belonged to someone named David Nixon. There were several pieces of new clothing, at least three sets of keys, two knives, and a bankbook. After five days staying at Eric's house, Dean disappeared and took Eric's computer, TV, and a camera with him. Eric reported those items stolen to police. The jury also heard testimony that after David Nixon was killed, Dean used David's telephone card to make a call to the Kennebunk Police Department expressing concern about his friend. A recording

of that call was played at trial. In it, the man, presumed to be Dean, said, quote, A friend hasn't come home. Have there been any accidents? He told the dispatcher his friend's name was David, and she told him nothing had been reported. David Nixon's sister, Ellen, also testified that she received a phone call in the days following the discovery of her brother's body. The caller said his name was Dean and asked to speak with David. Ellen asked the caller how he knew David, and Dean said they'd met in Hartford about a year earlier. When Ellen told Dean that David was dead, without missing a beat like he was expecting to hear it, the man on the other end of the line asked,

Oh, really? How? Ellen said there was no sadness or shock in his voice. He even laughed. The state also presented the previously challenged evidence during trial, sharing with the jury those incriminating statements Dean Curtis made in an interrogation with Canadian officials. During the 23-minute interview with Detective Ronald G. Bain of the Peel County, Ontario Regional Police, Dean Curtis started out calm and cooperative, but grew angry and was getting visibly agitated. According to Detective Bain's testimony, Dean's chest muscles spasmed as he spat out, I've got no conscience,

end quote. Bain asked Dean why he was so angry, and according to reporting by the Journal Tribune, Dean raised his fists and shouted, quote, it's those bleep, like David Nixon, that make me do it, end quote. With that, the prosecution turned the courtroom over to the defense. And using an interesting approach, which included calling no witnesses, the attorneys representing Dean Curtis attempted to drum up all the reasonable doubt they could in the minds of the jury. He is not a nice person, but he is not a killer. That's what attorney James Boone told the jury as he attempted to discredit the circumstantial evidence upon which the state had built their case.

The defense asked the jury to consider a scenario where Dean Alton Curtis didn't kill David Nixon, but instead left him sleeping on the beach that night, passed out. And while David was fast asleep on the sand, Dean stole his car and his credit cards, as was his M.O. The defense allowed that their client quote-unquote ripped off gay men, stole their cash and credit cards and electronics, and then disappeared from their lives, sometimes assuming their identities, but he didn't kill them. As for the

phone calls back to police and even to David's sister, those were because Dean was worried that David was going to report the thefts and press charges, they argued. Sure, Dean may have been with David on the night he was killed, but no one saw him do it, they argued, and a murder weapon was never recovered from Dean's belongings. To draw the conclusion that Dean was a killer was too far of a leap without additional evidence, they wanted the jury to believe. The defense didn't call a single witness, but used their closing arguments to double down on their assertions that the prosecution's case was held up by circumstantial evidence only, saying to the jury, quote, the only thing that doesn't fit is calling Dean Alton Curtis a cold-blooded killer.

If you aren't convinced beyond a reasonable doubt, inferences can be drawn and conclusions can be reached that don't point to guilt, end quote. In their closing arguments, the state told the jury that the, quote, avalanche of evidence made their job easy, suggesting that anyone else killed David Nixon with all the evidence they'd presented was preposterous. Finally, the case was turned over for deliberation. And just over three hours later, the jury returned with their verdict. Dean Curtis looked at each juror as they firmly stated their vote to the court. All 14 members said out loud, guilty. David Nixon's mother cried as the verdict was read. With her son's killer finally convicted, she told Jonathan

Gold of the Journal Tribune, quote, I'm relieved, endune, Curtis was kept in isolation at York County Jail as he awaited sentencing. He'd threatened two guards while there. Finally, in April of 1988, a judge sentenced Dean to 40 years in Maine's maximum security prison without parole. At the sentencing hearing, Dean addressed David Nixon's family. Through sobs, he told them, quote, I really, really hurt inside. I'm sorry about the pain I've caused the Nixon family, end quote. David Nixon's family did not comment on the sentence.

David J. Nixon and his family received the closest thing to closure the justice system affords victims of violent crime. An arrest, conviction, and a lengthy sentence of their killer. But this story has a few loose ends, ones I've spent the last few months trying to tie up, but with no success. You'll remember that Dean Alton Curtis was also wanted for the murder of Stephen Ray Johnson in Canada. Canadian officials were waiting to hear Dean's fate in the Maine court system before they decided what course of action they'd take. If Dean Curtis had been found innocent of the murder of David Nixon, he would have been arrested right then and there by Maine State Police on behalf of Canadian authorities as a fugitive from justice.

But of course, he was found guilty and sentenced to four decades behind bars. As of January 1989, Canadian police still wanted to pursue charges against Dean Curtis. However, according to an article in the Journal Tribune, U.S. officials wanted Curtis to serve at least 10 years of his sentence in Maine before allowing him to be tried and potentially sentenced somewhere else. Still, a lawyer with the Ministry of the Attorney General for the Province of Ontario in Canada planned to prepare extradition paperwork in early 1989. Whether that paperwork was ever submitted, though, I can't be sure. I reached out to police in Canada to try to find out anything I

could, but information about Stephen Ray Johnson's case wasn't available. I could find no source material after 1989 that even mentioned his name here in the U.S. or in Canada. So I don't know what became of his case. It's a big loose end, a glaring hole in the story that bothers me to no end. The only thing that bothers me more is not knowing what happened to Dean Alton Curtis. Despite first saying that he would not pursue any appeals, Dean did appeal his conviction on the grounds of those statements made to Canadian authorities, but a judge denied the appeal in December of 1988. His sentence was 40 years without possibility of parole, and so, if he was still alive, Dean Curtis would still be in prison for another few years at least.

But according to my research, Dean is not still alive. As an obituary for a man named Dean A. Curtis, with the same date of birth, from the same town in Maine, and with a father by the same first name as the man convicted of killing David Nixon, states that he died on August 19, 2001, at Penn Bay Medical Center in Rockport. This obituary also states that Dean A. Curtis had been employed as a salesperson in the automotive business. It doesn't say when or where, but this isn't a fact about Dean Curtis I've seen mentioned anywhere else in the source material. When he killed David Nixon in 1987, he worked at the inn. So was he a car salesman before that? Did Dean Alton Curtis get released and become a car salesman sometime between his conviction in 1988 and his death in 2001? I got a criminal history

report for Dean Curtis from the state of Maine, and unfortunately, it doesn't include any information about his release, if he was released. Sometimes, news outlets will publicize the release of a criminal, especially violent ones, but I didn't find anything in my archival sources. So, I then submitted a Freedom of Access Act request to the Maine State Prison in Thomaston for former inmate number 18101. The FOAA coordinator responded via email, quote, There is no information available. It has all been destroyed per our retention schedules. End quote. Maybe he died while serving his prison sentence. Penn Bay Medical Center, where he died, is about 10 miles from Maine State Prison,

so maybe he was transported there from prison after some sort of medical event. But the detail in his obituary about Dean being a car salesman just sticks out to me and makes me wonder if he somehow got out of prison before serving anywhere near his full sentence. Again, it's a frustrating loose end I can't tie up. At the very least, we know for certain that David J. Nixon's killer and Stephen Ray Johnson's suspected killer will never have the opportunity to hurt anyone else. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. Sources cited and referenced for this episode are listed at darkdowneast.com. Please follow Dark Down East on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening right now.

If you have a personal connection to a case and you want me to cover it on this podcast, please contact me at hello at darkdowneast.com. Thank you for supporting this show and allowing me to do what I do. I'm honored to use this platform for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers in cold missing persons and homicide cases. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East.