CAMDEN, Maine – Suspicious deaths in an idyllic coastal community and detective work that points to poison sound like the themes of a classic murder mystery. But the victims of this Maine crime were trees blocking a wealthy family’s oceanfront view, allegedly cut down by wealthy killers who, although ostracized and publicly shamed, remain free.
Wealth and hubris fuel the story of a politically connected Missouri couple who allegedly poisoned their neighbor’s trees to secure Camden Harbor’s million-dollar view. The incident discovered by the victim herself – the philanthropic wife of L.L. Bean’s late president – has united local residents in outrage.
To make matters worse, the herbicide used to poison the trees leached into a neighboring park and onto the city’s only public oceanfront beach. The state attorney general is now investigating.
“Anyone stupid enough to poison trees near the ocean should be prosecuted as far as I’m concerned,” said Paul Hodgson, echoing the sentiments of many exasperated residents of Camden, a community of 5,000 nestled in the foothills that sweep across up from the Atlantic Ocean and overlooks a harbor filled with lobster boats, yachts and schooners.
If this were a made-for-TV drama, the story set against the backdrop of this quaint village would have it all: wealthy out-of-state villains, an investigative member of the venerable L.L. Bean family, and the same powerful chemical used to avenge the defeat of the Alabama on the football field for archrival Auburn.
Amelia Bond, former CEO of the St. Louis Foundation, which oversees charitable trusts with more than $500 million in assets, brought the herbicide from Missouri in 2021 and applied it near oak trees on Lisa Gorman’s oceanfront property. , wife of the late Leon. Gorman, president of LL Bean and grandson of LL himself, under two consent agreements with the city and state pesticide board.
Bond’s husband, Arthur Bond III, is an architect and nephew of former U.S. Senator Kit Bond. Their summer home, owned by a trust, is situated just behind the Gorman house, further up the hill.
When the trees and other vegetation began to die, Amelia Bond told Gorman in June 2022 that the tree did not look good and offered to share the costs of removal, Gorman’s attorney wrote in a document.
Instead, Gorman tested the trees. Soon, lawyers were involved.
More than $1.7 million in fines and settlements later, the trees were gone and the harbor view from Bond’s house was improved. But the chemical leached onto a neighboring park and beach, leaving the Bonds potentially at risk for additional monitoring and remediation, and the Maine attorney general agreed to further investigate the incident.
The herbicide — Tebuthiuron — was the same one used in 2010, by an angry Alabama football fan to kill the Toomer’s Corner oak trees at Auburn University following a Crimson Tide loss to their archrival. The incident resulted in a prison sentence for Harvey Updyke, who acknowledged poisoning the trees.
Tebuthiuron contaminates the soil and does not decompose, so it continues to kill plants. At Auburn University, it took the removal of about 1,780 tons (1,615 metric tons) of contaminated material to reach negligible levels of the chemical in the soil.
Other than removing the soil, the only other solution is dilution – waiting for nature to reduce the herbicide concentration to levels safe for plants. It can take six months to two years for it to be diluted enough to no longer endanger plants, said Scott McElroy, an Auburn professor who specializes in weed science and herbicide chemistry.
Back in Maine, Tom Hedstrom, chairman of the Select Board, said his job typically requires finding consensus on how to proceed with sensitive political issues. But this time there is no need because the residents are united in their anger.
Hedstrom said he is also appalled by the behavior.
“Wealth and power do not always go hand in hand with intelligence, education and morals,” he said. “This was atrocious and rude and whatever other word you want to use to describe abhorrent behavior.”
The Bonds paid a price for their actions, which they acknowledged in the consent agreements.
They paid $4,500 to resolve violations with the Maine Pesticide Control Board for the unauthorized use of a herbicide that was improperly applied and not permitted for residential use, $180,000 to resolve violations with the city, and another $30,000 for additional environmental testing, according to documents. They also paid more than $1.5 million to Gorman in a legal settlement, according to a memo from Jeremy Martin, the city’s director of planning and development.
An attorney for the Bonds said they have no comment but “continue to take the allegations against them seriously. They continue to cooperate with the City of Camden, the State of Maine and the Gormans, as they have for the past two years.”
An attorney for Gorman declined to comment.
Rep. Vicki Doudera, D-Camden, said she intends to resolve the maximum $4,500 fine that the Maine Pesticide Control Board was authorized to assess. One of her ideas is a sliding scale that takes into account the scope of damage and intent.
“It makes me so mad,” Doudera said. “This situation, the minute I heard about it, I thought, ‘Wow! These people are going to get a slap in the face. That’s just not right.”
On a recent afternoon, no one was at Bond’s residence as people walked their dogs less than 500 feet away at Laite Memorial Beach, where the herbicide lethal to aquatic plants was detected.
Camden resident Dwight Johnson described as “underhanded” the way Amelia Bond pretended to be a good neighbor by offering to share the costs of removing trees she had poisoned. Lynn Harrington, another city resident, wondered if the Bonds could come around town, where they are members of the Camden Yacht Club.
Some residents say the episode fits the tired stereotype of wealthy summer residents “from afar” — the Maine term for foreigners — running roughshod over full-time residents.
But some residents resisted casting summer residents as troublemakers.
Hodgson said Camden has its own rules-breaking characters in a community where there are many year-round residents who are wealthy and affluent. He said some residents of the community where the median income is just under $93,000 — high for Maine, New England’s poorest state — have been known to cut down trees, knowing it is illegal.
“They just pay the fine because they have a lot of money,” Hodgson said. “This is the city we live in.”
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