Loved ones of paddleboarder killed in Maine to hold a celebration of life

ST. George, Maine – The friends and family of a Maine woman whose murder in a rural pond shocked the community plan to celebrate her life with a maritime service on Sunday.

Sunshine Stewart, 48, from St. George, disappeared in July as he paddleboarding on Crawford Pond, a popular summer destination in the Union. She was then found dead and the police charged Deven Young, 17, of Frankfort, in Maine, of murder in connection with her death.

Stewart’s relatives call on Sunday a “maritime celebration of life”. They hold the memorial at 10:30 am in the port of the tenants’ port of St. George, where Stewart lived. The event will include a ship procession near the tenant port, according to the organizers.

“On August 10, 2025, family, friends and community will meet on the sea to honor and remember the radiant life of Sunshine ‘Sunny’ Stewart – a woman whose light has affected all the souls she met,” said the promoters of the event in an article on social networks.

Maine’s prosecutor’s office said that he was trying to try Young in adulthood. A judge will have to reign at this request. Young was due to the court for a state conference on August 22.

Young made a brief initial appearance in court last month during which he registered a refusal of the accusation of murder. His lawyer, Jeremy Pratt, refused to comment.

The authorities have published some details on the murder and have not speculated publicly on a reason. Maine’s state police spokesman Shannon Moss said the Stewart’s death investigation was still active and “will be for a while.”

Stewart lived around 20 miles (34 kilometers) from the pond where she was killed. The pond is popular with boaters and fishermen and is the site of a campsite. The police said that a medical examiner had determined that Stewart’s cause of death was a strangling and blunt trauma.

In the weeks following the murder, Stewart’s friends commemorative as an independent spirit, a devoted friend and a lover of the ocean and the outdoors. She borrowed a career path in life, working as a biologist, fisherman, carpenter and in many other roles, friends said.

Bethany Leach Parmley, a lifelong friend, described Stewart as “a really faithful and wonderful friend”.