Joseph Jimino, 40, died after an ATV crash in Otisfield. Photo courtesy of My Place Teen Center
Leslie Grover used to see Joe Jimino often on the ATV trail system that stretched behind their homes in Casco and Naples.
She remembers one encounter well. Grover was out riding with her neighbors when they ran into Jimino’s group. She knew Jimino was good, so she asked him to do some tricks for her young neighbor.
“He was showing off for a kid,” Grover said Wednesday. “He was a big kid himself.”
Jimino, 40, was found dead along an ATV trail in Otisfield on Tuesday, days after he was reported missing. He had last texted his friends on Thursday, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, to say he was out on his ATV. He didn’t show up to work that Friday and Monday.
A game warden found his body around 9 a.m., after police and fire department workers began searching the woods for any sign of him on Monday night.
Grover said Wednesday that she, Jimino and several others were in an ATV riding club. When the group learned of his death Tuesday, they gathered to grieve together.
Jimino is from Raymond, according to his Facebook profile, and attended Windham High School. He was a father. Pictures of his young daughter dominate his profile.
He also was a facilities manager at My Place Teen Center in Westbrook, an after-school spot for teens, according to CEO Donna Dwyer.
The center was devastated by Jimino’s death, Dwyer said in an email Wednesday.
Jimino’s impact “was far-reaching and ran the gamut,” she said. He tackled large renovation projects, yet was “at the beck and call of everyone’s needs for errands and fixing things.”
“He always did it with a smile and with skill,” Dwyer wrote. She said his “impact can be felt and seen inside our former church building and the beautiful perennial gardens.”
Dwyer said that Jimino was so much more than a facilities director. He mentored many of the kids who visited the center and was able to build trust with his “wise-cracking” ways and interesting life experiences. He treasured their relationships, she said.
“Saving kids’ lives was his passion,” Dwyer wrote. “They mattered to him, and he mattered to them.”
Investigators believe Jimino died after an ATV crash along the road, but they’re still investigating.
Grover said this was shocking to those who knew and rode with Grover.
“It’s just crazy that it’s him,” Grover said. “He wore a helmet, he knew his limits for the most part. It’s just all very surprising.”
A spokesperson for the Maine Warden Service said Wednesday that Jimino was wearing a helmet.
Jimino dressed with consistency – cargo pants, doc martins, and a baggy white shirt that always seemed new, even though Jimino was always outside. He was a tinkerer – always helping friends with projects, or helping maintain the riding trails, said Grover.
He was the kind of guy who friends felt they could visit any time. If he wasn’t home yet, he invited them to sit on the couch, watch some TV. Grover said he had several arcade games.
The Press Herald was unable to reach his family Wednesday. Neither Jimino’s brother nor the mother of his young daughter responded to Facebook messages seeking to talk about him.
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