Court papers detail scene in Turner couple’s killing

AUBURN — A Turner man charged in the double murder of his landlord couple last month entered their home through a living room window, according to court records.

Troy Varney, 54, and his wife, Dulsie Varney, 48, were killed in their home at 44 Knight Farm Road in February.

Patrick J. Maher appears at a Zoom videoconference Feb. 17 in 8th District Court in Lewiston. Seen from the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn, he is being held on two murder charges in the deaths of a Turner couple in their home. Christopher Williams/Sun Journal

Patrick Maher, 24, of Turner is charged in the murders and is being held without bail in the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn.

According to records filed in Androscoggin County Superior Court, the entry point to the home was determined by a member of the Maine State Police Evidence Response Team, who noticed shards of glass under a broken window at the couple’s home.

Kristian Woodhouse, the boyfriend of the couple’s 19-year-old daughter, Shelby, told investigators that they were asleep upstairs in the house when they were awakened to the screams of Shelby’s mother early in the morning of Feb. 12.

The two grabbed guns and ran downstairs where Woodhouse saw Dulsie Varney stumble into her bedroom. Then he noticed Troy Varney lying on top of Maher at the bottom of the stairs, according to an affidavit written by Maine State Police Detective Justin Huntley.

Maher was a tenant in an apartment of the Varney’s rental property at 419 Turner Center Road, which is less than half a mile from the Varney home.

Original reports indicated that Maher had been renting a room in the Varneys’ home.

Troy Varney, who was bleeding from the mouth, chin and back, told Woodhouse he shot Maher, Huntley wrote in his affidavit.

Woodhouse said he first thought the blood he saw was Maher’s, but realized it came from Varney. Woodhouse tried to help Varney restrain Maher while also seeking to help Varney with his injuries.

Deputies from Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office soon arrived and restrained Maher.

Meanwhile, Dulsie Varney was lying on her bed with a neck wound; her daughter gave her first aid.

Woodhouse could hear Maher “speaking incoherently” as rescue workers took over the job of tending to the victims, Huntley wrote.

Woodhouse told police he saw two knives at the scene, one on the floor in the area of where Troy Varney was found and a similar, “dagger”-like knife was in the area where Dulsie Varney was lying.

Sheriff’s deputies had responded to a 911 call from the home at 1:32 a.m., according to Huntley.

Rescue workers drove the Varneys to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston where they were pronounced dead.

Autopsies revealed they died from sharp-force injuries to the head, torso and extremities. Their deaths were ruled homicides.

Although Maher’s face, hair and body were covered in a dried reddish-brown substance, police could find no physical injuries on him after he was taken to St. Mary’s Regional Hospital in Lewiston, Huntley wrote.

Maher appeared in court roughly a month ago where a judge ordered he undergo evaluations for competency to stand trial and to gauge his state of mind at the time of the incident.

He was charged with two counts of intentional or knowing murder; each charge is punishable by 25 years to life in prison.

Justice Valerie Stanfill impounded the affidavit supporting Maher’s arrest for 30 days. No date has been set for a hearing on bail.

Troy Varney operated a fourth-generation dairy farm and was owner/operator of T.W. Varney Excavation. Dulsie Varney worked as a nursing instructor at Lewiston Regional Technical Center.

They are survived by their daughters, Audrey and Shelby, who graduated from Leavitt Area High School in Turner.