WILTON – As the investigation into the shooting death of a well-known local contractor heads into the fourth week, police are calling on the public for information.

Raymond E. “Butch” Weed, 40, was shot dead in the entryway of his home at 32 Main St. on Dec. 23 between 5:30 and 7 p.m. He was found by friends delivering Christmas gifts.

Initially, up to 12 investigators were working the case, but that number is now between four and six, said lead investigator Sgt. Walter Grzyb of the Maine State Police.

The last homicide of 2003 and one of three unsolved ones that year, Weed’s death is still the priority for the state’s southern crime investigation unit, Grzyb said.

“We do a big blitz early on but as time goes on, you just don’t need as many people to chase everything down,” he explained.

On Tuesday, a team of investigators met in the conference room at the Franklin County Courthouse in Farmington to compare notes and plan assignments.

While in the past, investigators have been working out of the Wilton Police and Fire Station, their main base now is their cars.

“There is no need for us to hunker down right now,” Grzyb said. “We have enough work to do that keeps us running from place to place.”

The investigation has stayed mostly in Franklin County, but has led to other places, such as Lewiston.

Much of the focus now is on reinterviewing some of the more than 100 people who have already been questioned, and on waiting for the right clue to surface.

Grzyb put out an appeal to the community again on Wednesday to speak up.

“We think we’ve done a pretty good job tracking information down, but obviously someone isn’t sitting in jail right now so the right info isn’t getting through to us,” he said.

Grzyb said he believes community members are sitting on the information that could solve the case but might not realize how important it is.

“The taking of another person’s life is the most serious thing a person on this earth can do,” he said. “Butch had his life taken and his mother has to live with that forever and so do his brothers and sisters and everyone who cared about him.”

State Police spokesman Stephen McCausland said, “No call is too insignificant.”

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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