LEWISTON – The property where a teenager died two years ago during a haunted hayride crash has been sold at auction for $1 million.

The Sun Journal reported that the Harvest Hill Farm property was sold at an auction held a week ago. Owner Peter Buldoc’s corporation filed for bankruptcy a year ago facing foreclosure.

Court records say Buldoc hadn’t been able to pay the mortgage on the Mechanic Falls property since 2014. That year, a wagon tipped over during a Halloween-themed hayride, killing 17-year-old Cassidy Charette of Oakland.

The crash injured about 20 others.

The buyers at auction were companies from Long Island, New York. They are E-Layne Moulders Corp. of Amityville and Jaspan Schlesinger of Garden City.

A grand jury issued manslaughter and other charges against the farm last year.

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Randy Charette, the father of Cassidy Charette, earlier this month filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the owner of the farm and two of his employees.

The lawsuit alleges that Bolduc and two employees, David Brown and Philip Theberge, knew or should have known that the brakes were defective on the Jeep towing the trailer on which Charette and more than 20 others were seated, and that the Jeep was operating beyond its towing capacity of roughly 2,000 pounds. The weight of the wagon and passengers was estimated to be roughly 5,400 pounds when the wagon tipped over during a downhill portion of the hayride, according to the lawsuit.

The family is suing for an unspecified amount of damages, based on the pre-death, conscious suffering Charette experienced.

The Charette family in a statement said any proceeds from the lawsuit would go to a charitable foundation established in their daughter’s name.


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