The three Oakland residents who were killed in a shooting in November have been memorialized along with 10 other homicide victims on the Maine Murder Victims’ Memorial in Augusta.
Mike Muzerolle and sisters Amanda Bragg and Amy DeRosby were among those added to the monument this year and remembered in a ceremony at Holy Family Cemetery on Townsend Road in Augusta Sunday afternoon. The three were killed Nov. 4 by Herman DeRico, DeRosby’s partner, who then shot himself.
Also among those added to the black granite monument this year were Eric Williams, who was shot on Christmas morning in Manchester, and Stephanie Ginn Gebo, who was shot to death in Parkman June 5, 2015, allegedly by her former boyfriend, Robert Burton.
Another name goes back decades – Christopher Rines, who was 14 when he disappeared April 12, 1991, from his Pittsfield home. His body was later found in the Sebasticook River.
There were 83 names on the monument when it was first installed in late 2013 by the Maine chapter of Parents of Murdered Children. The monument was dedicated in June 2014. Last year, 11 names were added and 13 more were added this year.
Arthur Jette, who heads the Parents of Murdered Children chapter, said that the yearly event “gives people an outlet to be able to have an opportunity to share in safe company with those who’ve had similar circumstances and be able to share stories about their loved one.”
“We really, truly want people to be able to, when they’re speaking about their loved one, to be able to have a smile come to their lips before a tear reaches their eyes,” Jette told WCSH on Sunday.
Jackie Bragg, Bragg and DeRosby’s mother, told WCSH on Sunday that “it’s still too soon.”
“They say, ‘Think of the good times,’ but it’s hard to think of the good times. ‘Think of something fun that they did,’ and you know, my mind goes blank. I just, I can’t think of it,” she said.
She attended the ceremony Sunday because her children would want her to be strong, she said.
“They were great people. They didn’t deserve this. They hadn’t even been able to live their life yet. It’s not fair,” said Bragg.
A motive was never determined in the Oakland shooting case, which was closed in January. DeRico, 42, shot to death his girlfriend DeRosby, 28; her sister, Bragg, 30; and Muzerolle, 29, in Muzerolle and Bragg’s downstairs apartment at 41 Belgrade Road. He then shot himself in the driveway of the residence, where he and DeRosby lived upstairs. Bragg and Muzerolle’s 3-year-old daughter, Arianna, was the only survivor of the shooting.
Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said in January that toxicology tests showed DeRico had amphetamines, methamphetamine, marijuana and alcohol in his system, and there was evidence of recent cocaine use. But he also said that investigators will never know a specific motive.
The families of Bragg, DeRosby and Muzerolle are also working with the town of Oakland to install a memorial bench at the town beach.
Burton, charged with killing Ginn Gebo, 37, pleaded not guilty in December. He turned himself in in August after a nine-week manhunt. Ginn Gebo was described by friends after her death as a caring person and “wonderful mother” to her two children.
Williams, 35, and Bonnie Royer, 26, were shot Dec. 25 at 3:30 a.m. on Sanford Road in Manchester. David Marble Jr. of Rochester, New York, has pleaded not guilty to the several charges related to their deaths. Williams at a memorial on Jan. 1 was described as a “big-hearted guy” who would drop everything to help a friend.
Rines’ homicide was never solved.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.