The Bangor Daily News from Bangor, Maine • 1

UMaine's incoming class of 2012 starts moving in bringing total enrollment to a record high STATE B1 FINAL EDITION bangordailynewscom SATURDAYSUNDAY AUGUST 30-31 2008 $150 McCain chooses Examination of the body of Joyce McLain victim of 28-year-old homicide yields surprising results Palin Governor sports small-town roots BY STEVE QUINN AND CALVIN WOODWARD THE ASSOCIATED PRESS JUNEAU Alaska In two short years Sarah Palin moved from small-town mayor with a taste for mooseburgers to the office and now making history to John side as the first female running mate on a Republican presidential ticket She has more experience catching fish than dealing with foreign policy or national affairs Talk about a rocketing ascent In turning to her McCain picked an independent figure in his own mold one who has taken on powerful oil industry and at age 44 is three years younger than Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and a generation younger than McCain 72 selection was a jaw-dropper as McCain passed over many other better known prospects some of whom had been the subject of intense speculation for weeks or months said her father Chuck Heath who got word something was up while driving to his remote hunting camp Palin had been in the running-mate field but as a distinct long shot She brings a strong anti-abortion stance to the ticket and opposes gay marriage constitutionally banned in Alaska before her time but exercised a veto that essentially granted benefits to gay state employees and their partners See Palin Page A10 BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTOS BY KEVIN BENNETT Dr Henry Lee (left) and Dr Michael Baden answer questions about their forensic examination of murder victim Joyce McLain's body at a press conference in Augusta on Friday Millinocket native who assisted exam: 1 wanted to be part of it' BY NICK SAMBIDES JR OF THE NEWS STAFF MEDWAY Dr Peter Cummings had just finished his residency in Virginia and moved to Boston to begin work at the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner But when he heard that tfre body of Joyce McLain would be exhumed and reexamined 28 years after she was brutally killed he volunteered immediately to help homicide remains unsolved wanted to be part of the 37-year-old forensic neuropathologist said Thursday after a hearse left Grindstone Cemetery to take the body to the state medical office in Augusta know pathologist Dr Mike Baden from seeing him at a few meetings so I called him up and offered my services He said Cummings feels a special conneo- tion to McLain When the 16-year-old Schenck High School sophomore was found bludgeoned to death near the soccer field in East Millinock- et on Aug 10 1980 he was a 9-year-old Dr Pater Cummings (right) talks with boy living in neighboring Millinocket Pam McLain during the exhumation of See Exant PageA7 her daughter Joyce's body at the Grind stone Road Cemetery on Thursday BY NICK SAMBIDES JR OF THE NEWS STAFF AUGUSTA Renowned forensic experts Dr Michael Baden and Dr Henry Lee found new evidence Friday during their examination of Joyce exhumed body that gives state police renewed hope for solving the teenage East Millinocket 28-year-old homicide has been gathered that they investigators can immediately work Baden said during a brief press conference held in the parking lot outside the office of the chief medical examiner on Friday afternoon evidence" Lee added Baden and Lee expressed surprise that the body seemed as well preserved as coffin and vault were found to be after they were dug up from a Medway cemetery on Thursday When asked to grade the preservation on a score of 1 to 100 Baden gave it an 85 to 90 Both declined to say much more citing the need to keep aspects of the investigation confidential Neither of the specialists nor state police spoke of imminent arrests or anything so dramatic and the work is far from over Many tests remain that will take weeks to do Lee said and any new evidence must fit into an already massive investigation to produce enough probable cause for an arrest a formidable task But the evidence could provide the greatest break in the cold case since the 16-year-old Schenck High School body was found on Aug 10 1980 near the East Millinocket soccer fields She had been beaten to death McLain was last seen jogging nearby late on Aug 8 See McLain Page A6 Collins: I want to campaign here in Maine BY BILL TROTTER OF THE NEWS STAFF BLUE HILL US Sen Susan Collins said that though it is exciting that John McCain has picked Alaska Gov Sarah Palin as his running mate in the presidential campaign she is not going to attend the Republican National Convention next week in Minneapolis Collins attended the annual Blue Hill Fair on Friday afternoon speaking with fair-goers as she walked the fairgrounds for about 90 minutes The visit was part of a statewide campaign bus tour that is scheduled to take Collins to Norridgewock on Monday for a Labor Day parade Collins said Friday that Palin has executive experience serving as governor of Alaska and that she brings several other advantages to the Republican presidential ticket appears to share commitment for Collins said has a proven record of challenging the old lack of experience she has been governor for less than two years and was a mayor in an Anchorage suburb before that is not a concern Collins said Palin is known for having pushed for higher ethical standards in Alaskan state government' she said and the position with which experience matters the most is president not vice president McCain has plenty of experience in Washington and always toe the party line she said See Collins Page A10 Maine drunken driving fatalities jump in Index Album C12 Lifestyle C7-14 Amusements Cll Lottery A2 Business Cl -6 Obituaries B6-7 Classifieds F1-H4 Outdoors D6-7 Comics J2-3 Religion C13 Crossword J2 Sports Dl-8 Cryptoquip FI State Bl-8 Dear Abby J3 Stocks C5 Dr Donohue 2 Sudoku Cll Editorial A12-13 Television Tl-4 Horoscope J3 Weather B8 Jom Avenll B4 WSJ Sunday C2-4 Legal notices G2-3 Vol 120 No 64 is the last big weekend of the summer for most Col Patrick Fleming of the Maine State Police said in an interview Friday are going to go out They are going to be at picnics and parties We want them to think about it every time but we really urge people to be cautious this weekend about drinking and In 2006 52 people died on Maine roads in accidents in which alcohol was a factor The jump to 66 in 2007 represents an increase of 21 percent Drunken driving deaths are defined as fatalities that occur when the driver involved had a blood alcohol content of 008 or higher the legal limit in the US is such a small state that one or two deaths can skew the Fleming said this year goes on hopeful our numbers will come back down but we still emphasize drinking and driving as a major problem throughout the state always a matter of making people more Fleming did not have the number of alcohol-related traffic deaths so far in 2008 Nationally the data were positive There were 493 fewer alcohol-related fatalities in the United States in 2007 a decrease of 4 percent from 2006 The nation saw 13491 alcohol-related traffic deaths in 2006 and 12998 in 2007 See Driving Page A2 BY ERIC RUSSELL OF THE NEWS STAFF BANGOR Despite widespread advertising campaigns and increased police patrols aimed at deterring drunken drivers Maine was one of 18 states that saw an increase in alcohol-related fatalities in 2007 according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Statistics released this week by NHTSA showed that 66 people died on Maine roads in alcohol-fueled accidents in 2007 14 more than in 2006 The data were released just ahead of the long holiday weekend that traditionally sees increased traffic throughout the country 200fl Bangor Publishing Co Periodicals postage paid at Bangor Maine 04401 Publication number USPS 041000 00006 13781.