Maine’s three largest cities recorded just one homicide between them in 2025, according to Maine State Police, with most killings instead occurring in small towns and rural areas.
Recently released statewide data shows that state police investigated 21 homicides last year, a dip compared to recent years. Both 2023 and 2024 were some of the deadliest years in the state, in large part because of the mass shooting in Lewiston and strings of back-to-back killings.
Police leaders in Bangor and Portland confirmed that they didn’t record any homicides in 2025, while Lewiston had one.
The Lewiston case involved a 4-year-old who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound; his stepfather has pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child.
Though state police listed Jasper Smith’s death as a homicide, Lewiston police spokesperson Lt. Derrick St. Laurent said the department classifies homicides differently and does not consider negligent manslaughter cases to be homicides.
State police’s list of homicides also includes the death of a 3-year-old girl whose mother is being charged with manslaughter for allegedly leaving her in a vehicle in Milford.
The list also includes three suspected murder-suicides.
The longest period without a killing was 82 days. The most homicides occurred in March and September, with four occurring each month.
Bangor police Sgt. Jeremy Brock said while he is glad that his department didn’t see any killings, the lack of homicides in the city doesn’t mean there weren’t “close calls.” He said he’s grateful for the work of hospitals and medical personnel who provided life-saving aid to people who could have died from assaults.
Several homicides occurred in central Maine, many of which were allegedly committed by family members of the victims.
The state police list included two homicides in the rural town of Norridgewock, which has a population of around 3,300. In February, a man was accused of killing his uncle, who died of multiple blunt force injuries. And in a separate homicide in March, a man was accused of fatally shooting his girlfriend’s son. Both men have pleaded not guilty and are expected to go to trial.
Police have identified suspects in all 21 homicides listed. Most of the suspects were adults, save for two teens accused of killing adults.
A Chelsea teen was accused of killing two of his relatives in June while he was allegedly in foster care. Police have not identified the teen, who was 16 at the time of the killings. Members of the state Legislature have called for an investigation into the Department of Health and Human Services’ interactions with the family of the accused teen.
Weeks later, a 17-year-old from Frankfort was accused of killing a woman in Union who went missing while paddleboarding on Crawford Pond in Knox County. Records have shown that the teen had a history of violent behavior and was waiting for behavioral health services from the state.
Other more rural towns in Maine that recorded a homicide in 2025 included Etna, Palmyra, Palermo and Readfield.
Maine State Police investigate all killings in the state, but the Portland and Bangor police departments have the authority to investigate any that occur in their cities.
The state’s annual homicide report does not include police killings, which are separately investigated by the Maine attorney general’s office. The office hasn’t found a police shooting to be unjustified since at least 1990.
Elias Silverman, professor emeritus at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said Maine’s dip in homicides isn’t unusual and doesn’t appear to be a significant departure from previous years.
Silverman said that generally, Maine’s stats appear to mirror the 2025 trend of homicides going down nationwide, but he cautioned that crime statistics can be misleading because of how they’re reported: Some police departments have different parameters for what and how they report crimes to the FBI, which publicizes nationwide crime statistics.
Staff Writer Keith Edwards contributed to this story.
