AUGUSTA (AP) – An autopsy was completed Wednesday on a body that washed ashore in the eastern Maine town of Surry.

The medical examiner’s office ruled that the transient victim drowned, and that the cause of death was suicide.

The woman’s body was discovered Tuesday morning un Contention Cove, which is in Patten Bay in east Surry.

Former prostitute seeks new trial

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) – A former teenage prostitute who admitted killing her roommate at the behest of her pimp is asking for a new trial after spending more than two decades in jail.

Robin Marie Murphy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder 22 years ago in the ritualistic slaying of Karen Marsden, who was stabbed to death in 1980.

Murphy, now 40, now claims her former lawyer pressured her into pleading guilty.

In his motion for a new trial, Springfield lawyer Greg Schubert argued that Murphy’s former lawyer, Kenneth Sullivan, led her to believe she would be paroled after serving 12 years if she pleaded guilty and testified against other members of a reputed cult. The earliest date for probation in a second-degree murder case is 15 years.


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