Photo of teenager suspected of killing paddleboarder after murder that’s filled sleepy town with terror released

Deven Young, 17, was taken into custody on Wednesday night and later charged with the murder of Sunshine Stewart

Stewart, 48, who was beaten and strangled to death in Union, Maine, on July 3, hours after setting off alone to paddleboard on Crawford Pond

Appearing in a Knox County courtroom on Friday morning via Zoom, Young denied responsibility for Stewart’s death

Judge Eric Walker ordered Young to remain in custody on a charge that he caused Stewart’s death either intentionally, knowingly, or with depraved indifference 

Judge also ruled that police affidavits and additional information regarding the evidence against Young will remain under seal until a status conference is held on August 22

17-yearold Deven Young, [photo], from Frankfort in Maine, was taken into custody in small town of Union on Wednesday night and later charged with the murder of paddleboarder Sunshine Stewart. In his profile photo on Facebook [right], he is posing with a shotgun in a chair

The image of the teenage boy arrested over the death of a paddleboarder in Maine was made public for the first time after he made a court appearance via zoom.
Deven Young, 17, was taken into custody on Wednesday night and later charged with the murder of Sunshine Stewart, 48, who was beaten and strangled to death in Union, Maine, on July 3, hours after setting off alone to paddleboard on Crawford Pond.
Young who the state is keen to try as an adult, appeared in a Knox County courtroom on Friday morning via Zoom, where pleading not guilty to the murder of Sunshine Stewart. 
He spoke only to acknowledge that he understood the charges against him and that he’d conferred with his court-appointed attorney.

Sunshine Stewart, [photo], 48, was found dead in the early hours of July 3, after she set off for a solo paddleboarding excursion in Crawford Pond, in Union, Maine. Her death has been ruled a homicide 

Judge Eric Walker ordered Young to remain in custody on a charge that he caused Stewart’s death either intentionally, knowingly, or with depraved indifference.
Judge Walker also ruled that police affidavits and additional information regarding the evidence against Young will remain under seal until a status conference is held on August 22.
The initial appearance hearing lasted about five minutes. The state has filed a motion for the case to be bound over to adult court.
That motion which was not discussed at the July 18 hearing, is crucial because if he is tried as an adult and convicted, Young would be facing a minimum of 25 years in prison and up life in prison.
If the current trial conditions hold true, Young who turns 18 in two months, could be sentenced to juvenile detention until he turned 21 years old, meaning a maximum of three years.
For now, Young remains in custody at the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland. 

Young’s last post on Facebook, dated July 12, included an image of a boat moored in a lake at sunset. It’s not clear where the image was taken

The teen suspect is from Frankfort, Maine, but regularly spends summer vacations with his family on Crawford Pond. His Facebook page states that he had attended Hampden Academy but left in 2023. He will turn 18 in September.
Young’s profile picture shows him posing with a shotgun in a chair, staring slack-jawed at the camera, with a cartoon American flag superimposed at his feet.
His last post on the platform, dated July 12, included an image of a boat anchored on a lake at sunset. It’s not clear where the image was taken.
Asked by a friend in a comment beneath the post how he was, Young responded: ‘I’m doing good how are you doing.’
At the time the message was posted, state police were frantically scouring Union to find Stewart’s killer. 
Young was arrested in the town on Wednesday evening without incident. 

The state has requested Young’s case be moved to adult court, which means that he would be facing 25 years to life in prison, instead of juvenile detention until he turns 121 in three years. There has not been a ruling on the motion

Any connections the teen had to Stewart are not yet known. 
News of her murder left residents of the small, tight-knit community of Union terrified.
Among them was Meredith Smith, a childhood friend of Sunshine Stewart, was stunned by the news of Young’s arrest.
‘Part of me is relieved that someone has been arrested, but the other part says this is far from over because I feel like there’s still so much more to this story that we don’t know,’ said Smith.
‘Sunshine was strong and feisty; she would’ve put up a fight…she would’ve given this person hell.’
However the Maine Attorney General’s office believes confirmed that the 5’8”, 250 pound teenager was acting alone.

Stewart had been staying at the Mic Mac Campground in Union, Maine, where she planned to spend the summer living out of her camper

 Sunshine Stewart was last seen leaving her camper to go paddleboarding on Crawford Pond at around 6pm on July 2.
When she had still not returned by the early hours of July 3, someone raised the alarm.
Before dawn broke, a search and rescue drone spotted Stewart’s paddleboard drifting alone.
Her body was later discovered along the southeast shore of 100 Acre Island, a nature preserve in the middle of the pond.
Police have not confirmed any details of how Stewart’s body was found, or in what condition, sharing only that the circumstances were ‘unusual.’
However, sources revealed that she died by strangulation and blunt force trauma. 

Meredith Smith who had known Stewart for four decades, since they were little girls, [photo], said ‘Sunshine was strong and feisty; she would’ve put up a fight…she would’ve given this person hell’

An autopsy determined that Stewart’s death was a homicide, but law enforcement shared few updates over the following two weeks.
Smith told the Daily Mail on Monday that she was struggling to understand why anyone would harm her dear friend.
‘Everyone who knew her loved her,’ she said. ‘Who would do something like this to her? She didn’t have any enemies… there’s nothing she could’ve done to make anybody mad enough to harm her.
‘We’re all on edge, it’s just so scary… if it can happen to her, it can happen to anyone.’
Local police urged residents of Union to remain calm but be ‘aware of their surroundings’.

Sunshine Stewart [photo], a marine biologist, lobsterman, bartender, and boat captain, died by strangulation and blunt force trauma, sources revealed 

On Wednesday, it was reported that Maine State Police were collecting DNA samples from men who were near Crawford Pond on the night Stewart vanished. It’s unclear whether the arrest of Devan Young was consequent on DNA test results.
Smith was fearful of what the DNA search may indicate about her friend’s final hours.
‘I feel like it’s insinuating something that they’re only taking DNA from men and not women,’ she said.
‘You wonder, could this have been done by someone that was obsessed with her? Or maybe it was completely random and she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.’
‘She was a strong person and would have given them a tough fight because she was feisty.’

48-year-old Sunshine Stewart [photo], is remembered as a woman who loved nature and radiated positivity – ‘She was a force of nature who was strong-willed, independent, outgoing, and adventurous’, a close friend said  

News of Stewart’s death renewed fears that a serial killer could be preying on victims across New England undetected, following a string of unexplained deaths.
At least 13 bodies have been discovered throughout Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine since March 2025, with the majority of them found in wooded or secluded areas and some submerged in water.

Stewart’s remains were found along the southeast shore of 100 Acre Island, a nature preserve in the middle of the pond. A spot so secluded that a local said ‘unless you’re really familiar with the area, you’re unlikely to know how to get to Crawford Pond.

Records show that at least 13 bodies have been discovered throughout Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine since March 2025

Most of the deaths are unexplained, with many of the victims showing no visible signs of trauma.
Law enforcement in multiple states has repeatedly denied any confirmed link between the cases and urged the public to refrain from jumping to conclusions and peddling baseless speculation.
Some experts asserting the improbability of the serial killer speculation, cite the lack of consistent patterns between the crimes, with victim profiles, locations of the deaths, as well as suspected causes varying so widely, to be the work of one person.