A Cumberland County judge is considering whether to grant bail for a Maine man who is accused of killing his girlfriend in 1987.

Stephen Bouchard, 63, was arrested this month at his home in Winslow and taken into custody at Cumberland County Jail without bail. He is charged with murder and has pleaded not guilty to killing 23-year-old Alice Hawkes, whose body was found Oct. 4, 1987, in the Westbrook apartment they shared.

During a bail hearing Thursday, a prosecutor accused Bouchard of beating Hawkes and slitting her throat during a time period when he claimed to have been locked out of his apartment. Bouchard also allegedly confessed to another person that he had “committed the perfect crime,” a state detective said.

Bouchard’s attorney Peter Cyr called into question the accuracy of statements made by witnesses, especially during recent interviews with detectives. He asked the judge to grant his client bail because he doesn’t pose a risk to others and needs to continue treatments for throat cancer.

“This is a particular case because it was 39 years ago. The best way to predict future behavior is past behavior,” Cyr said, adding that Bouchard has no criminal history and has always been cooperative with investigators.

Superior Court Justice Deborah Cashman said she would issue a written ruling about her decision in the coming days.

In a crowded Cumberland County courtroom Thursday, former detectives who responded to the crime scene in 1987 testified about what they remember from the investigation, sometimes struggling to recall specific facts from the case.

Attorneys also spent hours examining a Maine State Police detective who works in the agency’s cold case unit, drawing a timeline of events from the days before Hawkes was found dead until Bouchard’s recent arrest.

Authorities say new interviews with witnesses provided more clarity about statements made nearly 40 years ago and gave more context about the couple’s relationship and a potential motive for Hawkes’ killing.

Daniel Dubé, who also represents Bouchard, said in an interview after the hearing that defense attorneys are concerned about some of the testimony submitted as evidence, because many witnesses are deceased and others are struggling to recall their memories from so long ago.

He also said state police’s reason for arresting Bouchard is not based on “new evidence” but rather a “new assessment” of the circumstances, as well as recent interviews with witnesses.

TIMELINE OF THE CASE

According to the detectives’ testimony, Bouchard told police he was locked out of his apartment on the day before Hawkes’ body was discovered. After running errands and playing golf with a friend, he ended up staying the night at his friend’s house.

Bouchard provided police with receipts from his errands that day and told them he met with Hawkes in the afternoon after being locked out of his car. He also told investigators he had tried to get into the apartment but didn’t have a key, and that he had been calling Hawkes nearly every 30 minutes.

Most people who talked to police after the killing said Hawkes had been acting like her usual, cheery self on the day prior and in the hours leading up to her death, according to detectives.

Bouchard asked his landlord for help getting into the apartment the next morning, which is when Hawkes’ body was found.

Now-retired Maine State Police detective Steven Holt said during Thursday’s hearing that he arrived at the Spring Street apartment that morning to find a trail of blood from the living room to the bathroom. He said Hawkes was found dead in the bathroom, lying in the fetal position.

Peter Murray, a now-retired Westbrook detective, said he saw a steak knife next to the pool of blood in the living room. Bouchard told police at the time that he had picked up the knife after seeing Hawkes’ body, Murray said.

At the time, investigators collected blood scrapings from the bathroom and fingerprints from the knife and around the apartment. Maine State Police Detective Chad Lindsey, who started investigating the case in October 2025, said blood markings in the bathroom indicated that Hawkes had tried to stand up and stop the bleeding.

An autopsy showed that Hawkes also had bruises on her inner arms. Lindsey said that bruising could have been caused by someone pinning her down.

THE COUPLE’S RELATIONSHIP

In various interviews, Hawkes’ friends told police she had “no intention” of marrying Bouchard and was unhappy in her relationship, according to detectives. Though she had been living with her boyfriend for more than a year, friends say she had been romantically involved with another man at the time.

One friend recalled an interaction that Hawkes mentioned to her in which Bouchard allegedly pinned down Hawkes and “terrified her,” Lindsey said.

Lindsey said investigators had information that Bouchard confessed the killing to a friend, describing it as “the perfect crime.” It’s unclear how police got that information, and Lindsey said the friend is now dead.

Cyr, Bouchard’s attorney, said several other records of interviews with Hawkes’ friends did not indicate that Hawkes was fearful of Bouchard. He questioned whether anyone’s recollections have changed over the years, especially those who engaged in online conversations about the cold case.