ME- Marshall visited homes of other sex offenders: CP

4-27-2006 Maine:

The Cape Breton man who used an online registry to track down and kill two sex offenders in Maine visited the homes of another four offenders but no one came to the door, The Canadian Press reported.

Maine police told CP that investigators traced Stephen Marshall's movements during his trip to Maine using a global satellite positioning program on a laptop computer in his possession.

Det. Brian Strout, an investigator with Maine State Police, confirmed that another four people were visited.

"Obviously he did have a plan in place," he said.

"Maybe we'll find it. We haven't uncovered it fully yet, but he had some kind of plan there."

Strout and a partner returned from the Marshall's hometown in North Sydney, N.S., where he collected evidence from his apartment.

A source who asked to remain anonymous suggested other sex offenders were lucky to be alive.

"There were two people killed; there was the potential for four more," he told CP. "They either weren't home, or they didn't answer the door."

The unnamed source said Marshall "had a street-finder GPS program on his computer specifically to find the addresses."

The laptop was found next to Marshall's body after he killed himself on a bus in Boston after being confronted by police.

Police say Marshall, 20, visited Maine's online sex-offender registry and researched the addresses of at least 34 people.

Marshall gunned down Joseph Gray, 57, of Milo, Maine, and William Elliott, 24, of Corinth, Maine, just over a week ago on Easter weekend, authorities say.

Friends in Idaho and Nova Scotia have told media that Marshall felt strongly about pedophiles. One of them said he thought pedophiles were "worse than killers" while another said he was especially protective of his younger sister in Nova Scotia.

Chris Reisdorph, who befriended Marshall when they were boys, told CP he and his older brother often discussed with Marshall about how they regarded sex offenders as the ultimate predators.

The two became close friends when Marshall and his father moved to the tiny Idaho town of Culdesac.

The pair put together a now-offline blog that included links to favourite sites, including one on "how to spot a pedophile."

The site also posted a list of 10 suicide methods in "How to kill yourself like a man," as well as a link to a website with some 3,000 photos of firearms he called "the sweetist (sic) pics of weapons that you can find anywhere."

Chris Catapano, a friend of Marshall's in Cape Breton, said he knew Marshall despised sex offenders.

"I know he had a lot of hatred for things like that," Catapano told the Cape Breton Post.

However, learning Marshall dedicated web space to informing others how to commit suicide "like a man" distressed Catapano.

"I never expected him to even think of things like this." ..Source.. by CTV.ca News Staff

ME- Sex Offenders' Killer Studied States' Lists

4-26-2006 Maine:

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - A man who fatally shot two people named in Maine's sexual offender registry drove by the homes of four others in the area who appear on the list, a police official said Tuesday.

Stephen Marshall also viewed the national registry, as well as those in New Hampshire and Vermont, said Col. Craig Poulin, Maine's state police chief, briefing a legislative committee on the investigation into the April 16 killings.

Marshall got information on 34 sex offenders from Maine's online registry, then created his own list of 29 offenders, with their pictures, names and addresses, on his own computer, Poulin said.

Investigators are studying Marshall's computer hard drives, which they brought back from Nova Scotia, where the 20-year-old killer lived.

Police say Marshall took three guns and a pickup truck from his father before driving to central Maine and killing Joseph Gray, 57, through Gray's living room window and William Elliott, 24, when he answered his door.

Marshall fatally shot himself later that day when he was confronted by police on a bus in Boston.

The case has prompted a national debate on whether the registries available online in every state _ created to protect children from predators _ put those listed at risk. The joint legislative committee in Maine is gathering information on the killings as it begins to consider changes to that state's registry.

Gray and Elliott appeared on Marshall's computer list, Poulin told the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. A program on his laptop shows that he drove by the homes of four other convicted sex offenders in the area, but police can't determine whether he stopped at them.

Investigators determined that Marshall viewed the Maine registry April 11 and then shortly before the killings after he arrived at his father's home in Houlton, Maine. ..Source.. by GLENN ADAMS