Amy's Story

The details of Amy St. Laurent’s last hours can only be pieced together by witness statements and police investigation.   What she may have said, how she felt, how she tried to save herself – all things her family and friends are pretty certain they can imagine.  This was a woman they knew had good instincts, good awareness and a bright future.

Amy St. Laurent went missing after a night in the Old Port section of Portland, Maine, where she took an acquaintance out on the town.  Earlier that day she visited museums in Boston.  That evening she was seen at a pool hall, bought pizza and her last stop for the evening was the Pavillion dance club.  She left the dance club with two men she had met that night, which was out of character for Amy,  and went to an apartment on Brighton Avenue for a birthday party. She was never seen again.

Her family and friends were immediately concerned when they had not heard from Amy the next day and especially when she didn’t show up for work Monday morning.  After two months of massive search efforts by the Portland Police Department, the Maine State Police and the Maine Warden Service, Amy was found buried in the woods off Route 22 in Scarborough.  She had been beaten, her body showed signs a sexual assault had taken place and she had been shot to death.  Her murderer was convicted and sentenced to 60 years in prison.

It was probably not possible or even socially acceptable to stand up in the middle of the Pavillion dance club and announce “I am nervous about the man I came here with and he has my keys and cell phone back in his car.”

Everybody who knew Amy believed she would never leave a bar with someone she didn’t know.  She was missing less than twenty-four hours when her family and friends knew something must have gone wrong.  She would not leave her cat without someone to care for him and she especially wouldn’t miss work Monday morning.  She was not a woman who made people worry unnecessarily.

Fifty-five days of ground, air and water searches turned up nothing.  Eight weeks after hearing the last words she would ever hear her daughter speak, Diane Jenkins got the call that no parent ever wants to receive.  Amy St. Laurent, 25 years old, was found buried in a shallow grave off Route 22 in Scarborough.  She had been beaten, likely the victim of a sexual assault and shot to death.  There was GHB, one of the date rape drugs, found in her system.  She had been left in the woods for a number of days before her killer returned to bury her.

Amy had unknowingly crossed paths with a violent sexual predator.   He didn’t attack her out in the open, in plain view of people who may have helped.  He gained enough of her trust to get near her.  He was someone who spent a lot of time in the Old Port and was on a first name basis with many of the bartenders, waitresses and bouncers.  He saw an opportunity.  What he said to convince her to leave the bar with him is unknown.  Maybe she was drugged before they left the bar. Maybe she was afraid to go home because this other man who seemed angry already was nowhere to be seen and had her keys and phone and jacket.   Somehow she ended up in his vehicle and later in his apartment. How she ended up drugged and killed in the woods on a cold October night is something that only one person knows for sure.