Megan Reeves, 18, of Windham, is awaiting trial for burglary and arson charges in a Kentucky jail cell.

Police said Reeves, who is a student in the Windham Adult Education program, was a participant in a multi-state crime spree that included a man from Naples who is still on the loose.

Michael Woodbury, 31, of Naples, is wanted in the south for a string of crimes including burglary, arson and bank robbery. He was released from jail on May 15 after serving five years for an armed robbery in Windham.

Police Chief Matt Doering of Glynn County, Georgia, said that Woodbury and Reeves had a romantic relationship. Reeves’ mother Michelle Roberge, of Windham, disagrees.

“He was looking for someone gullible and naive, and he found her,” said Roberge, when contacted for comment earlier this week.

Woodbury was last seen on June 19 in Chattanooga, Tenn., and eluded police in a stolen car.

“My family is living in fear that he is going to kill us,” said Roberge.

Edward Woodbury, of Windham, who adopted Michael Woodbury at the age of 6, did not wish to comment.

“Megan has a history of dating boys a few years younger than her, not older,” Roberge said. She believes that Woodbury used threats of murder to force her two daughters into helping him on a cross-country crime spree.

“I’m not entirely positive what happened,” said Roberge, adding that she hasn’t had time to talk to Reeves about everything that happened.

According to Roberge, Reeves met Woodbury through a friend last month. Roberge said Reeves had asked to borrow the car to visit her father in Arizona, but was turned down.

On June 4, Reeves and her sister Renee Gagne, 17, took their mother’s black 2005 Suzuki Aerio, Roberge said, in order to drive to Arizona. They brought Woodbury along with the intention of dropping him off in Florida, a detour of more than 700 miles.

Roberge said Woodbury turned on the girls when they got to New York and told them if they ran away he and his friends would hunt them down and kill them. She said he was armed with a handgun and four knives.

Roberge said she reported her car stolen on June 4, but the theft wasn’t entered into the National Vehicle Database until the evening of June 6. Between that time, the car was pulled over in Virginia Beach for having a radar detector. Gagne was driving and the two girls made no attempt to escape, despite Roberge’s claim that he was threatening them.

“I’ve often wondered about that myself,” said Roberge. She said her daughters joked around with the officer that pulled them over and didn’t attempt to escape because they were so afraid of Woodbury or one of his friends coming after them.

She said Woodbury masterminded photographs that showed him and Reeves happily embracing. She believes that Reeves’ smile was forced and that her daughter is actually pulling away from him in the photo.

When asked why the girls didn’t try to escape in the night, Roberge said Woodbury kept the car keys with him and the girls had no money to get a bus ticket home.

She said Woodbury made the girls throw out their cell phones so they could not be tracked by the towers. She claims Reeves was somehow able to persuade him to let her hang onto her phone for an additional two days.

Crime spree timeline

On June 6 in Florence, S.C., Woodbury allegedly robbed a bank of $1,000.

“At one point, he told Megan he was going to kill Renee,” said Roberge.

Two days later in Port St. Lucie, Fla., Gagne departed from the trio. Roberge said she was booted out of the car by Woodbury.

On June 12, Reeves and Woodbury allegedly burglarized the home of a wealthy couple in St. Simons Island, Ga. After looting the Glynn County home, they allegedly set it on fire. The fire department thought it was an electrical fire. The house was a total loss.

The relationship, whether it was a romantic or captive one, ended at a truck stop on June 18 in Franklin, Ky. According to Roberge, Woodbury told Reeves she was going to have to kill someone and she refused. Woodbury then allegedly held a knife to Reeves’ throat and told her he was going to kill her.

Reeves was able to talk Woodbury into letting her use a bathroom at the Flying J truck stop. Roberge said he had her use the trucker bathrooms in the back, not the regular ones where there would be witnesses.

Deputy Sheriff Eddie Lawson of Simpson County, Kentucky, where Franklin is located, said Reeves snuck two of the knives in the bathroom with her and locked herself inside. She wrote her name and details of the crime spree on the walls with eyeliner. She wrote contact information for her family and waited for Woodbury to break in after her.

Bystanders witnessed Woodbury shouting at Reeves through the bathroom door and called police. Lawson said they chased him through the woods on foot but lost him.

“We believe he stole a car from our jurisdiction,” said Deputy Lawson. Woodbury was spotted driving the stolen car the next day in Chattanooga, Tenn. He remains at large.

In the Flying J parking lot, Simpson County Sheriff’s deputies opened up the car from Maine, its month-old tires worn down from two weeks of hard driving, and found some items from the Georgia home inside and a roll of film, Roberge said.

Reeves wrote out a full description of the events of the previous two weeks to the Simpson County Sheriff’s Department. Her mother arrived by plane and the two stayed in a motel.

Roberge said Woodbury still had the keys to her car and a replacement set she had ordered from the manufacturer didn’t work. They prepared to go back to Maine on June 20 without the car when Megan Reeves was arrested on a warrant from the Glynn County Police Department for the burglary and arson in Georgia.

“There was probably cause to believe she committed those crimes, and that’s what she will be tried for,” said Capt. Marissa Tindale of Glynn County. Her department was alerted of the burglary and arson after hearing from the Simpson County, Kentucky Sheriff’s Department that took Reeves’ statement.

Reeves is still awaiting extradition to Georgia. The Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s office has not yet assigned a prosecutor to the case.

Roberge would not comment on her daughter’s involvement with the burglary and arson in Georgia, or the bank robbery in South Carolina, but said she believes her daughter is innocent.

“If he’s being charged with kidnapping, how is she committing a crime?” Roberge said.

“I’m not going to say Megan is an angel, she’s had a few scrapes,” said Roberge. She said her daughter is very naive and gullible, but works hard at her full-time job as a customer service representative in the greater Portland area.

Woodbury is wanted on burglary and arson charges in Georgia, armed robbery in South Carolina, grand theft auto in Maine. In Kentucky, he’s wanted on charges of terrorist threat, unlawful imprisonment, burglary and assault. He is also a suspect in an armed robbery in Tennessee.

Arson1: This photo of wanted criminal Michael Woodbury, 31, of Naples was found on a roll of film inside a car he abandoned in Franklin, Kentucky after running away from the police.Arson2: This photo of Michael Woodbury, 31, of Naples and Megan Reeves, 18, of Windham was found on a roll of film inside a car abandoned in Franklin, Kentucky after Woodbury ran from police and Reeves hid in a bathroom. Reeves’ mother Michelle Roberge insists the photo was faked by Woodbury.Megan Reeves

Copy the Story Link