BRUNSWICK — A wooded cul-de-sac near the Durham town line was quieter than usual Tuesday as details began to emerge about a violent killing that unfolded there several days ago.

Tanner Dostie, 45, is accused of fatally stabbing his 61-year-old neighbor Dennis Blasens, dismembering his body with a chainsaw and burning his remains in a fire pit behind Dostie’s home on Randall Circle, according to a police affidavit.

He has been charged with murder and is being held without bail at the Cumberland County Jail. 

Dostie was arrested after police were called to a Bath church Friday evening because attendees of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting reported that he was being disruptive. According to the affidavit, Dostie told responding officers that he had killed Blasens.

The affidavit was sealed by court order, Maine Judicial Branch spokesperson Barbara Cardone said Tuesday. A copy of it was shared with the Press Herald by WMTW, which obtained the records before they were sealed.

Authorities have not yet confirmed the identity of the victim, and results from an autopsy are still pending, according to Maine State Police. But the affidavit says Dostie repeatedly told police that he killed Blasens and tried to dispose of the evidence, laughing as he said he almost got away with it. Dostie allegedly told police he was on drugs and at one point said, “I killed my neighbor today. It was the happiest I’ve ever been.”

Blasens’ son, Francis Blasens, said in an interview Tuesday that his father was the most generous person he knew. He was shocked and angry when he heard the news.

“Nobody deserves what happened to him,” he said.

The killing has shaken a neighborhood that is normally relaxed, friendly and calm. Residents described the area, which is closer to Lisbon Falls than the heart of Brunswick, as being home to many retired people who live in mobile homes. One resident of nearby Madeline Drive said she has had trouble sleeping since hearing the news. Another questioned how something so horrible could happen there.

Kate Dupree, who lives on Randall Circle, said she was friendly with both men and knew them to have a contentious, on-again, off-again friendship. She recalled that a few days earlier, she gave Dostie a hug and wished him well before a date. Now, she said, everything feels different.

“It’s going to change the whole fabric of the neighborhood,” Dupree said.

Blasens’ wife, Michele, did not respond to a phone call Tuesday seeking comment. A sign attached to the front door of the couple’s home said the family will not be commenting and asked media members to leave the property. 

Dostie’s attorneys said Tuesday that their client plans to enter a not guilty plea at his arraignment, which has not yet been scheduled. They declined to speak about specific allegations against Dostie.

“It’s still early on in the process, and there’s still a lot of things we don’t know,” attorney Daniel Wentworth said.

COURT DOCUMENTS DETAIL ALLEGATIONS

When police officers arrived at the Bath church after 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dostie crawled toward them, with his stomach flat to the ground and a sheath knife on his belt, according to court records. 

Officers reported that Dostie did not comply with their orders, prompting them to use Tasers on him roughly a dozen times, the records show. At one point, Dostie asked officers to shoot him.

While in an ambulance, Dostie allegedly told an officer that he had killed his neighbor and burned the body in the fire pit outside of his house, according to court documents. At the hospital, he allegedly told officers he had consumed an entire bag of psychedelic mushrooms. A Brunswick detective said it “seemed like he was still in crisis or some kind of intoxication.”

Hours later, around 2:30 a.m., Dostie told detectives he did not mean to kill Blasens but that once he started to stab him, he was unable to stop, according to the affidavit. 

Officers conducted “protective sweeps” of Dostie’s home throughout that night. 

Members of the Maine State Police Evidence Response Team and the State Fire Marshal’s Office later executed a search warrant at Dostie’s house. They saw red-brown stains on and underneath the back deck and in several places throughout the house, according to the affidavit. In the fire pit, they found bones, parts from a chainsaw and what appeared to be a melted baseball bat.

Michele Blasens told police that her husband had known Dostie for about 10 years, and that over the past few weeks, the men had been working together to repair Dostie’s truck. She said her husband bought about $4,000 worth of truck parts for Dostie, who reneged on a promise to pay him back, according to the affidavit.  

Dostie’s friend Louis Senecal told detectives that Dostie spoke to him Thursday about killing a neighbor, cutting him up and burning him, and that he told Senecal that he was “battling demons.”

Neighbor John Laroque told officers that he spoke Friday afternoon with Dostie, who apologized to Laroque for “all the noise” at his house and said he and Dennis Blasens had recently argued, according to the affidavit.

Neil Danish and his son, Jonathan, were out for a walk Tuesday and were shocked to learn that the homicide they had heard about on the news occurred in their own neighborhood.

“It changes my perception of the Brunswick area,” Neil Danish said.

Dupree, the Randall Circle resident, described Dostie as “haunted” throughout her several years of knowing him.

REMEMBERING DENNIS BLASENS

Francis Blasens, Dennis’ son, said his father was “a sociable guy,” who always wanted to chat and was generous. If a neighbor needed a new deck, he volunteered to build it, without worrying about payment. 

“If he had the time, he’d give it,” Francis Blasens said.

Dennis Blasens met his wife, Michele, in Ohio through a friend of a friend, Francis Blasens said. Michele, 18, was in high school and Dennis, 23, was about to leave to join the military. He served in the U.S. Navy for 25 years and at the Brunswick Naval Air Station until it closed, overseeing the mechanics who worked on airplanes, according to his son.

He took temporary deployments to places like Italy and Puerto Rico, Francis Blasens said, so the children wouldn’t be disrupted by moving. 

Francis described his father as lenient, though “he taught me the lessons that needed to be taught.” His parents made a good team, he said. 

Francis and his father shared a love of tinkering. The pair spent years restoring an old F-150 from the frame up. It’s one of his favorite memories with his father, and the truck is still in his basement. 

“I wouldn’t be who I am without my father,” Francis Blasens said.