Friends and family gathered at the causeway bridge in Naples for a candlelight vigil to mourn the death of the three youths whose lives were claimed in a car crash in Sebago on Thursday.
Mourners released balloons with prayers written on them and set candles afloat on Long Lake in memory of Joshua Plummer, 23 of Naples; Matthew Waugh, 21 formerly of Westbrook, and Tamera Hearn, 18 of Lafayette, Ore. All three died on impact when the Chevy S-10 they had been riding in crashed into a roadside tree last week.
What began as a midnight beer run ended in tragedy after the driver, Plummer, attempted to elude Cumberland County Deputy Sheriff Raymond McIntire. McIntire had witnessed the Chevy truck speed through a Naples stop sign and drive recklessly across an intersection on Route 114.
After McIntire activated his sirens and lights, Plummer tried to evade McIntire in what quickly became a high-speed chase down winding back roads and sections of Route 114, with speeds exceeding 80 miles per hour. After losing sight of the truck, McIntire came upon the truck, its cab completely collapsed from the impact with the tree claiming the lives of all three passengers.
“He was a good kid. They all were,” said Cory Waugh, cousin of Matthew. “It’s a tragic thing to happen to anyone.”
Cory describes Plummer and Waugh as “old friends.” They had gone to Lake Region High School together and worked similar jobs with Plummer working at P&K Sand and Gravel in Naples and Waugh at Clemett Brothers in Bridgton. They often went off on dirt bike excursions in Kingsfield. They both loved music and the outdoors.
On Wednesday afternoon, June 15, Cory Waugh received a phone message from his cousin Matthew asking him to come to a party off Raymond Cape Road. Cory declined because he had to work the next morning.
Around 7:30 p.m., Matthew Waugh picked up clothes from his mother’s house in Bridgton, telling her that he was going to spend the night elsewhere. He had recently moved back in with his mother, Kathy Manchester, after living in Westbrook for six months with a former girlfriend. On his way out the door, he told his mother that he loved her.
“You couldn’t ask for a better kid,” Manchester said. “He was a very friendly person and loved his family.”
Relatives said that Waugh had recently “pulled his life together” pursuing his GED at the Bridgton Learning Center and was working at Clemett Brothers as a landscaper.
The pursuit
Though the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department has yet to wrap up its investigation, many details have been released concerning the events leading up the triple fatality collision.
According to authorities, the pursuit started at the intersection of State Park Road and Route 114 in Naples at 12:15 a.m. Deputy Raymond McIntire was traveling toward Naples on Route 114 when he observed Plummer pass him after driving through a stop sign at State Park Road. After a few moments, McIntire made a U-turn and headed south on Route 114 in order to observe Plummer’s operation of his vehicle.
“The deputy observed a traffic violation, and it took a while for him to catch up with the vehicle,” Capt. William Rhoads said. “He followed to observe the operation of the vehicle, to see if the driver was impaired.”
According to Rhoads, McIntire followed the vehicle as it sped south on Route 114 past Trickey Pond Road and Camp Mataponi and took a sharp right turn on Burnell Road. The deputy, after about three miles, finally flashed his blue lights when he saw the truck fishtail at a sharp corner, indicating reckless driving behavior on Plummer’s part.
“Once McIntire turned on his blue lights, Plummer started picking up speed,” Rhoads said.
The truck, which was traveling between 45 and 50 miles per hour on Burnell Road then took a left on Kimball Corner Road, which leads into North Sebago. The deputy backed off, according to Rhoads, due to several sharp corners and the presence of deer. The chase then sped back onto Route 114 with Plummer running a stop sign at the intersection of Kimball Corner Road and Route 114.
The truck picked up speed on Route 114 with Plummer at one point going 82 miles an hour through a straight section of Sebago near Richard’s Dairy Delight.
Rhoads said Deputy McIntire once again backed off from a close chase once speeds got high. The deputy fell behind the truck as it entered a sharp, right turn headed into the flat, straight section of road near Long Beach.
“I’m not sure why (McIntire) backed off; we’re still reviewing that. Maybe he felt uncomfortable with those speeds. I’m just not sure,” Rhoads said.
Just as the police pursuit entered Long Beach, Plummer failed to navigate the sharp right-hand turn leading into a straight section near the edge of Sebago Lake and collided with a roadside tree near the Rustic Barrel Restaurant.
During the chase, two deputies, Keith Cook and deputy-in-training Peter Anderson, were driving from Standish on Route 114 after being mobilized by a dispatch supervisor. They spread a spike mat across Route 114 near Jordan’s Store in Sebago at 12:23 a.m. Another deputy was en route from Naples on Route 114 and arrived shortly after the crash. Plummer’s vehicle, however, never made it to the spike mat, crashing about one mile north at 12:25 a.m.
Police defend pursuit
While police are investigating the crash scene and events leading up to the accident, Sheriff’s department officials are defending McIntire’s pursuit of the pick-up.
“There was obvious probable cause for the pursuit,” Chief Deputy Kevin Joyce said. “OUI, reckless driving, threatened use of violence all are allowable factors for a police pursuit. People will always say that a chase isn’t justified, but imagine what people would say if we let this truck go, which was speeding when we first saw it operating erratically, and didn’t try to stop it and it got into an accident down the road because of our failure to do our job. We had an articulable suspicion. We had to pursue. In an unfortunate situation like this, you’re kind of damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
Rhoads said Internal Affairs at Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department is currently investigating the accident scene and measuring the chase route. The District Attorney’s office was called immediately to do their own investigation and witness the accident scene, Rhoads said.
“It’s standard procedure to make a thorough review and perform accident reconstruction,” Rhoads said. “They’re starting from where the deputy first saw the truck go through the first stop sign and going from there. In all, it’s about 10 miles.”
During the initial post-accident inspection of the vehicle, police found empty beer bottles but none of the beer that the three bought at the Big Apple in Naples. Rhoads wasn’t willing to speculate on what happened to the two 12-packs the victims allegedly bought.
Plummer had been arrested in May, 2003, for OUI and summonsed for furnishing liquor to a minor in November of 2003. Plummer was not convicted of the OUI charge, according to Rhoads.
In January of 2000, Plummer had been operating a pickup truck that slid into a group of pedestrians on Route 11 in Naples during a snowstorm. One of the pedestrians died in the accident.
Having once himself received and OUI in November of 2003, Cory Waugh said he once warned his cousin about drunk driving. “He made the choice. We all made choices,” Cory Waugh said. “He hit the gas when he could have pulled over. I hope people can learn from it.”
Burial services for Plummer took place on Monday, June 20, at Kingsley Pines in Raymond. Waugh’s burial service took place at Crooked River Cemetery in Naples on Wednesday. A funeral service for Hearn was held at Macy & Sons Funeral Directors in McMinnville, Ore., on Wednesday.
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