One-quarter of the homicide cases documented in Maine in 2020 occurred in the Twin Cities, authorities said.

Jaquille Coleman, top left, Trai Larue, Abdikadir Nur, bottom left, and Bryan Peabody Submitted photos

According to an analysis conducted at Maine State Police, four of the state’s 16 murder and manslaughter cases reported over the past 12 months happened in Lewiston and Auburn. In all, 19 homicide victims were reported statewide because some cases with a single defendant involved multiple victims.

Two murder cases were reported in Auburn and two in Lewiston. In one of the Lewiston cases, the crime is believed to have been related to domestic violence, according to Maine State Police spokeswoman Katharine England whose statewide statistics were current as of 12:30 p.m. Thursday.

Of the 19 homicides in Maine this past year, all were classified as murders or have gone uncharged; one was classified as a manslaughter.

The 2020 numbers are lower than in 2019, when  22 homicide cases were reported, two of them nonnegligent manslaughters.

That year, one murder case was reported in Auburn, none in Lewiston.

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The Twin Cities homicide cases in 2020 were:

Bryan Peabody, 25, of 116 Hampshire St. was charged with murder in the June 3 fatal stabbing of Lawrence Kilkenny, 48, of Lewiston at Peabody’s address.

Trai Larue, 22, of 146 Pierce St., was charged with murder in the July 29 stabbing death near McDonald’s restaurant on Center Street in Auburn of Roger “Jordan” Cornell, 21, a transient from New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Jaquille J. Coleman, 26, of 37 Union St., Auburn, was charged with murder in the Aug. 21 shooting death of Natasha Morgan, 19, in her Scribner Boulevard driveway in Lewiston.

Abdikadir Nur, 20, of 303 Aspen Court was charged with murder in the shooting death of Hassan Hassan, 18, on Oct. 31 on River Street in Lewiston.

In 2019:

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Gage Dalphonse, 23, of 47 Crest Ave., Auburn, was charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Jean Fournier, 41, of Turner on July 27, 2019, in the parking lot of Walmart on Mount Auburn Avenue in Auburn.

Auburn Police Chief Jason Moen said that in each of the 2020 Auburn murder cases, the victim and suspect had been acquainted.

“These were not random acts of violence,” he said.

The number of murders is up by one from 2019, he said.

“There aren’t any trends that would indicate a pattern to these cases,” Moen said.

In a recently published 2019 report on crime in Maine, Auburn was shown to have experienced a 12% decrease in our crime rate from 2018, Moen noted.

“This is largely attributed to the pro-active steps we took regarding shoplifting in our city,” he said. “Auburn remains to be one of the safest cities in the state.”

A spokesperson at Lewiston Police Department couldn’t be reached for comment for this story.

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