Talk turns to conspiracy in church poisonings

NEW SWEDEN, Maine -- The police tape is gone, the satellite trucks have decamped and town hall is no longer a fingerprinting lab, but this once placid farming community remains deeply unsettled four weeks after 16 churchgoers were poisoned by arsenic-laced coffee.

The crime shocked New Sweden's 621 residents, and talk of a conspiracy has confounded a town where many leave their homes unlocked and their car keys in the ignition.

The first sign that something was amiss came on April 27 as worshippers munched on baked goods at a church social hour. Some said the coffee tasted odd. Those who drank it became ill. By morning, a 78-year-old man was dead and several others were in critical condition.

Media swoops in

Since then, dozens of reporters and state troopers have swooped into a community with no hotels, restaurants or bars, where social lives remain centered on its churches.

The mystery deepened when a member of Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church, where the parishioners were poisoned, committed suicide on his family farm and was implicated in the crime. Investigators quickly said they did not believe Daniel Bondeson spiked the coffee on his own, leading to the chilling conclusion that someone else was involved in the plot and still out there.

There is a sense the town won't experience the rebirth of spring until the case is closed.

That could happen next week or next year, said State Police Lt. Dennis Appleton, who is leading the investigation.

Appleton told The Associated Press that investigators are now convinced Bondeson did not act alone. Many in the community believe Bondeson, a passive man and a helpful neighbor, couldn't have done it at all.

But a lawyer for Bondeson's estate said Friday that he believes Bondeson alone was responsible. Attorney Alan F. Harding said he came to that conclusion after talking to people who claim to have seen the suspect's suicide note, which has been sealed by the state medical examiner.

Appleton believes the poisonings emerged from a stew of personal grudges and church politics. Police are considering the possibility the arsenic was meant to harm members of the 12-member church council, at least four of whom ended up hospitalized, according to church members.

Church disputes

One issue under investigation is the Bondeson family's donation of a communion table that sat unused for a few weeks. Another is the possibility that the 132-year-old church was going to be consolidated with neighboring congregations.

But worshippers say whatever disputes existed were minor. "Compared to murder, they were just a tempest in a teapot," said church member Raymond Hildebrand.

In spite of it all, the church and town have not turned their backs on the Bondeson family.

At least two of the poisoning victims attended Bondeson's funeral, and the church was as crowded as the Sunday after the poisonings, when congregants spilled into an adjacent fellowship hall, Hildebrand said.

Residents say the case has deeply shaken the community, and some say things may never be the same.