The murder of Sunshine Stewart: Where the case stands a year after her death

UNION, Maine (WMTW) - Friends and family of Sunshine Stewart continue to look for answers one year after she was killed. The 48-year-old of Tenants Harbor was first reported missing on July 2 of last year after she went paddle boarding on Crawford Pond and never came back.

The 48-year-old was found dead the day after. The causes of death were determined to be blunt force trauma and strangulation.

“There’s a big hole in your life,” said Rebecca Wentworth, Stewart’s mother.

The anniversary comes just a few months after a judge found Devon Young, the teenager charged in Stewart’s killing, competent to stand trial. Young was arrested last July, a few weeks after Stewart’s body was found.

Stewart’s family is still waiting to know if Young, who was 17 at the time of Stewart’s killing, will be tried as an adult.

Wentworth says she will be involved in her daughter’s murder trial every step of the way.

“She was the family tent pole; she held us all up,” Wentworth said. “She was driven to achievement and honesty and making the world better.”

Throughout the year, we have heard from other loved ones sharing who Stewart was and fighting for answers.

“There’s no way to replace who she was to her community,” Annie Haven, a friend of Stewart’s, said at a court hearing last August.

Stewart’s death has drawn national attention, with people far and wide calling for justice.

“I didn’t know, Sunny, but I feel like Sunny represents each one of us,” said Union resident Erja Lipponen at a memorial event for Stewart last August.

Young will continue to be treated as a juvenile until he has a bind-over hearing, during which the judge will decide whether he should be tried as an adult.