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Blue hydrangeas are seen Monday at the spot in Albion where Rocky Fuller found two children who, with their mother, were struck in a hit-and-run crash Friday. (Amy Calder/Staff Writer)

The toddler critically injured in what police described as a hit-and-run crash in Albion on Friday has died, Maine State Police said Tuesday.

Police wrote in court filings that the child and the other child who police said died at the scene were 2 1/2-year-old twin brothers who were with their mother, Mollie Egold, 33, of Albion when the crash happened.

Among the other new details about the investigation into the deadly crash, revealed in two police affidavits filed at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta, is that the Albion man accused of driving the vehicle that struck the children and their mother initially told police he wasn’t the one behind the wheel.

But state police linked the man — 44-year-old Benjamin Lancaster — to the Friday evening crash on Hussey Road by piecing together surveillance video from the area, damage to Lancaster’s vehicle and an account from his brother.

The second child to die, who was at MaineHealth Maine Medical Center in Portland, was found to have no brain function Sunday, Maine State Police Sgt. Garret Booth wrote in his second affidavit, filed in court Monday morning. Further testing was expected to occur Monday night to determine whether life support should continue.

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Neither police nor prosecutors have released the children’s names. They are referred to only by their initials, N.E. and B.E., in court documents.

A state police spokesperson, Shannon Moss, said Monday the boys were 3 years old, although their dates of birth listed in court records indicate they were 2, turning 3 in November.

Egold, the mother, was taken to Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, the affidavit says. Moss said Tuesday that Egold remained hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

Lancaster, meanwhile, was being held at the Kennebec County jail on $100,000 cash bail, which a judge set at his initial court appearance Monday in Augusta.

Lancaster has been charged with one Class A count of manslaughter, one Class B count of aggravated criminal operating under the influence, two Class C counts of aggravated criminal operating under the influence, and three Class C counts of leaving the scene of an accident involving serious bodily injury or death, according to court records.

All charges are felony-level offenses. Lancaster has not yet entered a plea, as prosecutors must first bring their case to a grand jury to seek an indictment.

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It was not clear late Tuesday afternoon if prosecutors would seek a second manslaughter count for the other boy who died.

State troopers, along with local fire and EMS personnel, responded to the crash shortly after 5 p.m. Friday after a neighbor, Rocky Fuller, called 911, according to Booth’s affidavits.

Fuller told the Morning Sentinel in an interview Monday that he did not initially hear the crash outside his home at 60 Hussey Road, but came in front of his house and saw two children not moving or making any sound, their double stroller thrown 20 feet from them. Fuller said he saw a woman lying at the end of his driveway, conscious and in great pain, apparently having been thrown against his mailbox.

On scene, a trooper found a piece of a bumper labeled as Hyundai and a piece of a white mirror, Booth wrote in his affidavit.

Shortly after, Lancaster’s brother called police to report Lancaster arrived at home on East Benton Road a few miles away, yelling at his girlfriend “that he had just hit someone and was asking what he should do.” His brother identified Lancaster’s vehicle to police as a white Hyundai.

Booth wrote he then interviewed Lancaster, who told him his girlfriend had been driving the car and hit a telephone pole. His girlfriend told police, however, that Lancaster was driving the car and came home to say he had hit a mailbox and needed to call police.

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In a later interview with police, Lancaster provided a different account of where he was, the affidavit says.

When Booth confronted him about his varying accounts and told Lancaster he had struck and killed a child, Lancaster allegedly responded: “I didn’t do it, I wasn’t driving.”

State police investigators later conducted a house-to-house canvas on Hussey Road, East Benton Road and Main Street. They pieced together surveillance footage beginning at 5 p.m. that shows Lancaster driving toward the crash scene, according to the affidavit.

Lancaster was first seen dropping off someone at 26 Robbins Road at 5:01 p.m., and at that time, his car was not damaged, the affidavit says. At 5:04 p.m., a home surveillance camera on Hussey Road about 2 miles away captured the vehicle, again with no damage.

Four minutes later, a camera half a mile from the crash site at Albion General Store recorded video of the same vehicle — this time with right, front-end damage — traveling west on Main Street toward Lancaster’s residence, Booth wrote in the affidavit. The driver and his clothing matched Lancaster’s description, he wrote.

About 40 minutes after that, state police responded to Lancaster’s residence after his brother reported the incident and saw the damage to his vehicle matched debris at the crash scene, the affidavit says.

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Court filings do not yet allege what authorities believe Lancaster was under the influence of at the time of the crash.

Booth’s first affidavit, filed Saturday, notes he obtained a search warrant for Lancaster’s blood, a sample of which police seized for testing.

Booth noted that he saw “obvious signs of impairment” while speaking with Lancaster.

“I noted his pupils were constricted, his face was pale, his mouth was extremely dry and his speech pattern was slow and low toned,” he wrote in the affidavit. “I noted that (Lancaster’s) movements were slow and exaggerated and his physical appearance as noted in this affidavit were consistent with the observations I have made as a Certified Drug Recognition Expert Instructor of over twenty years of individuals under the influence of Narcotic Analgesics.”

Locally, the crash has moved many to raise money for Egold and her family in recent days. An online fundraiser on the platform GoFundMe had raised nearly $30,000 as of Tuesday afternoon.

Store employees at 202 General at 14 Main St. in Albion, where Egold had worked previously, have set up a donation jar. A spaghetti supper fundraiser at the Albion Christian Church at 51 Main St. is scheduled for 4-6 p.m. Saturday.

Jake covers public safety, courts and immigration in central Maine. He started reporting at the Morning Sentinel in November 2023 and previously covered all kinds of news in Skowhegan and across Somerset...