The family of a Gray man who was shot and killed nearly a year ago are disappointed that no arrests have been made, and they are asking for the public’s help in solving the case.

“There were so many people there that night, you would think somebody saw something. I’m sure they did, and they’re just afraid to come forward,” said Vera Berry of New Gloucester, the mother of 45-year-old Mark White, who died Dec. 3, 2009.

“I still have the feeling it was somebody he knew,” she said.

“I know the case is open. The case will stay open until they find the killer, but how much are they really pushing?” Berry said of the Maine State Police and the Attorney General’s Office. “I need that closure. I want the guilty one caught.”

The circumstances that led to White’s death are unclear, and officials have declined to discuss details of the investigation.

Vera Berry said her son and several other people gathered at a spot on Whitney Road, outside her son’s home, on the night of the shooting. Berry said the group was burning trash in a metal barrel, and some of those involved were drinking beer and smoking marijuana.

Sometime that night, Marco Krauthamer of Freeport and Shane Rackliffe of Chesterville, both 21, arrived at Whitney Road. The men intended to steal marijuana and cash from one of White’s neighbors.

But shortly after those two men arrived, shots were fired, and White was hit. Krauthamer and Rackliffe took off in a car that crashed on Orchard Road in Cumberland just after midnight.

Those two men were key figures in the investigation of the shooting, but detectives ultimately determined that Krauthamer and Rackliffe did not have guns and did not fire any shots that night. They were both convicted of attempted burglary.

William Stokes, head of the criminal division of the state Attorney General’s Office, said investigators have a good idea of what happened, but they don’t have enough evidence to bring charges against anyone.

The case remains open and a Maine State Police detective is the primary investigator, working in conjunction with Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainea. It is considered an unsolved homicide.

“We don’t like unsolved cases, period,” Stokes said. “If the desire to solve unsolved cases was enough, then there wouldn’t be unsolved cases.”

There are 127 unsolved homicides in Maine, dating back to 1953, according to the Attorney General’s Office. Most of those are confirmed homicides, but some are missing person cases that involved suspicious circumstances, Stokes said.

Vera Berry said she does not want her son’s case to be forgotten.

“We’re not doing any better than before,” Berry said of the family. “The tragedy is there. My son has been buried. There were so many things he was going to do.”

Staff writer Trevor Maxwell can be contacted at 791-6451 or at:

tmaxwell@pressherald.com