WESTBROOK — Twenty-three-year-old Alice Hawkes’ life was cut violently short. Her body was found in her Spring Street apartment Oct. 4, 1987. Her throat had been slit.

Thirty-two years later, there have been no arrests, no suspects made public, and no closure for Hawkes’ family.

Hers is one of the 75 cold cases in the state. Hawkes’ family, frustrated for years that her killer hasn’t been brought to justice, are still determined to see her murderer punished.

“I just know we aren’t going away,” said Rosemary Driggers of Bangor, Hawkes’ older sister. “I’m 74. My mother passed away not knowing the truth. Hopefully, she knows it now.”

Frances Hawkes, who died in 2009, never gave up on the search for her daughter’s killer and regularly contacted Maine State Police, who handle all homicide cases in the state, for updates on the investigation, Driggers said. The lack of communication from law enforcement angered her and the rest of the family.

“I’m not down on the Maine State Police at all, it’s the system that’s the issue,” Driggers said. “I know some of these detectives want to say, ‘let’s get this guy,’ but they don’t make that decision, the (state) attorney general does. The AG won’t prosecute because they don’t want to mess up their chance of a conviction. The police work hard things, too, which I feel for. Who wants to see a beautiful woman like Alice laying in a pool of her own blood?”

In 2016, State Police Lt. Brian McDonough told WGME that “we have a pretty good idea of what happened and who is responsible for it.” Yet an official suspect was never named, the family said.

Before McDonough’s statement, the family hadn’t had any major updates from State Police in about seven years.

“The first few years we heard back a lot, but after a certain point, the only time we ever heard updates was when Rosemary initiated it, and even then it wasn’t often,” said Hawkes’ brother Mike Hawkes, who lives in Dyer Brook.

State Police did not return any calls or emails from the American Journal about the case.

Police are limited in what they can share publicly about an open case. Still, the family believes they need to be better informed, or at least told when a new detective takes over the investigation. Even a phone call explaining “that nothing has changed would have sufficed,” Driggers said.

Lack of a ‘smoking gun’

Mike Hawkes said investigators “lack the smoking gun” and don’t have enough information to make an arrest, but that’s their fault.

“They botched the case from the start and it’s cascaded for 32 years. I don’t like how they handle it, how they talk to the families involved. They won’t give us any information because they say it’s detrimental to the case, but 32 years later, what’s detrimental? Why don’t you show me the file,” he asked.

It was landlord Bob Margiloff, who unlocked the door to the grizzly scene in 1987, who placed the call to police at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 4.

They arrived at 8 Spring St. to find Margiloff waiting for them inside, along with Hawkes’ boyfriend, Stephen Bouchard.

Inside Apt. 3, Westbrook Detective Peter Murray saw a dark bloodstain on the living room carpet with smaller bloodstains leading to another room.  Following the trail, Murray found Hawkes on the bathroom floor, with what appeared to be a large cut in her “torso area,” according to early reports. The door and the tiny apartment’s lone window were both locked from the inside.

Two days later, the coroner went public with his findings. Hawkes had been murdered. A kitchen knife had been used.

Mike Hawkes was the first relative to show up at the Westbrook Police Department after his sister’s death because he lived in Portland at the time.

“They wouldn’t even tell me how she died. I didn’t know if she was in a car accident or what happened. By the time I got over there, (Bouchard) was there and his parents had already made it down to Westbrook from Hudson, so two hours happened before (the victim’s family) heard anything, it’s kind of odd.”

Cause of death not shared

“For two days, they wouldn’t even tell us how she passed. I’ve sat and thought about this many times,” he said.

Even after the coroner’s report concluded the death was a homicide, the family didn’t know the nature of Hawkes’ injuries until they were readying her body for the funeral.

The family wonders what would have happened if the case was handled differently from Day One.

Hawkes, born May 26, 1964, was smart, family-oriented and a hard worker who knew how to have fun, too. “She gave my mom and dad so much happiness and joy,” Driggers said.

Her best friend, living in California, asked Hawkes to be her child’s godmother. Hawkes happily agreed, but preferred the title of “Aunt.”

“I guess no one has had the chance to tell you what a wonderful mother you have,” Hawkes wrote in a letter to the infant. “Luck must be on your side! Not only are you starting a brand new life, but you’re doing it with the most loving, caring, special mother around! So start off on the right foot okay? Be good to your mom. I love her very much and I love you too. Aunt Alice.”

Hawkes worked full time at a bank at the Maine Mall. She lived at the Westbrook apartment with Bouchard, who worked in Portland.

Detectives think she might have been in the middle of putting away laundry when she was killed. A neighbor saw her bringing in laundry the morning of Oct. 3. She spoke to her mother by phone that day around noon.

“If that is what happened, that does not leave a big window for the murder,” said Mark Swett, a professional researcher who has been tracking and studying the Hawkes case for years. He runs alicehawkes.com.

Swett, a Westbrook resident who has worked with Frontline PBS, has interviewed most everyone involved in the Hawkes case, from family members to the landlord, police and other 8 Spring St. tenants. He has reached Bouchard as well, and he has “stayed consistent with his answers,” Swett said. Bouchard says he gave his statement to police and will not talk further.

Bouchard, then in his early 20s, returned home from golfing with friends late in the afternoon to find Hawkes’ car in the driveway, but the apartment locked, he told police at the time. He didn’t have his key with him, so his friends offered to let him stay the night with them in Portland.

“If you come home and your girlfriend’s car is there but you can’t get in, why do you leave for the night? That struck me as odd,” Driggers said.

‘The key is the key’

Returning to the apartment with his friends the next day and still finding himself locked out, Bouchard contacted Margiloff, the landlord, who came and unlocked the deadbolted door.

While waiting for police to arrive at the apartment, according to Swett, Bouchard told Margiloff to look at the nightstand by his bed, where the sole item on the table was his deadbolt key. The location of Hawkes’ key remains unknown, Swett said. Margiloff told Swett that he had seen Bouchard rummaging her purse at the crime scene, though exactly why he did that is also unknown.

“I believe the key is the key to the case,” he said.

After the police came and took control of the scene, they questioned Bouchard and his friends together and then allowed them to go, Margiloff told Driggers. Police found no sign of forced entry or items missing from the home.

“I didn’t even know that for a year or two after the murder, Margiloff told me that. How could they not split them up and question them on their alibi at the scene, and let them leave together” giving them time to strengthen their story, Driggers asked.

Police never considered Bouchard a suspect or even a person of interest, Swett says, and that confused the family.

“I remember (Bouchard) had a list of people he thought did it, though,” Driggers said. “His list was a mile long, He said he thought it was a guy she worked with who had made some passes on her, but he was in Minnesota at the time.”

Bouchard did not return calls from the American Journal seeking comment.

Family still has hope

Despite the deadlock in the investigation, Hawkes’ family still has hope that they will see justice for their sister.

“There is always hope, but realistically it doesn’t look very good,” said brother Rick Hawkes.  “You always have that hope that it will be solved though, but after 32 years no one has said a thing.”

A revitalized public interest in cold cases in the past few years, improvements in DNA technology and hope that someone who has information will finally come forward keeps their dream of justice alive.

“We all turned into ‘Dateline’ watchers, we watch true crime shows like ’48 Hours’ all the time. We are always looking for bits of information or help. Those cases can still be solved, sometimes it just takes someone with enough guilt and a new show or story to get them to talk,” Mike Hawkes said. “I know years ago, we reached out to those shows, but it boils down to Maine State Police won’t share anything with them, so what can they do?”

Swett believes the murderer is “still in Maine, and still alive,” he said during an encore presentation of his talk, “Who Killed Alice Hawkes?” a few weeks back at the Westbrook Historical Society.

“I believe (the killer) is out there,” Swett said at his presentation. “I believe him to be someone who reads about himself or the crime, keeping updated on the case. He may be watching the presentations I give or reading stories about him to see if there is anything new in the case.”

“Stories and news on it keep the case alive. … Mark has been amazing to us for that,” Driggers said. “At the very least, it makes the murderer think of Alice, even if it just for a little bit. I want him to not be able to run away from this, to have to face what he did, like we all have to.”

Their sister is never far from their minds, the family said.

“Whenever we happen to get together, it doesn’t matter if we are fishing or just relaxing for a weekend, this conversation will come about,” Mike Hawkes said. “At some point, the conversation about Alice will arise. It’s something that’s there, every day.”

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