Church members drank coffee laced with arsenic.

NEW SWEDEN (AP) – Parishioners at a Lutheran church observed two minutes of silence Sunday to mark the anniversary of when arsenic-laced coffee killed one church member and hospitalized 15 others.

About 50 people attended a 90-minute service at Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church, where the Rev. Peter Drever asked people to listen to God, “for his voice,” during the time of silence.

Fifty-two Sundays ago, on April 27, 2003, many of the same churchgoers attended a social gathering after services to mingle and share beverages and baked goods.

After drinking the tainted coffee, 16 members became violently ill. Walter Reid Morrill, 78, died the next day and several others were in critical condition.

At Sunday’s service, four arrangements of white lilies were placed at the front inside of the tan stucco church in Morrill’s memory by those who survived. Prayers were also offered for the survivors.

There was no other mention of the poisonings but the anniversary still held meaning as a way of marking time and remembering.

Ed Margeson, whose son was among those poisoned, said the day had special meaning because, with the exception of Morrill, everyone survived.

Margeson, president of the church council, said he and his son Erich prefer not to look back over the past year.

“We like to look forward,” Margeson said after Sunday’s service. “Looking back is painful.”

The poisonings drew international media attention, creating a murder mystery atmosphere in this small town in the rolling hills of far northern Maine. The town was settled by Swedish immigrants in 1870 and the church was formed a year later.

But in contrast to the large pack of journalists who were in the town of 621 a year ago, only one print reporter and one television reporter were present Sunday.

Five days after the poisonings, church member Daniel Bondeson committed suicide at his farm. He left behind a note that state police investigators say implicated him.

But police add that the note, which has not been made public, strongly suggested that Bondeson did not act alone. Police have said they believe the incident was the result of petty church politics and personal grudges. Nobody has been charged.

Erich Margeson, at 31 the youngest of the victims, became the father of triplets on March 31. Like his father, he’s stopped reflecting on the past.

“This one-year anniversary is important to me in that a year later we’re all doing well,” he said.

It isn’t so easy for Dale Anderson, who has short-term memory loss, pain in his legs and general body aches a year after being poisoned. The anniversary for him brings back memories of Morrill – “and that’s tough,” he said.

And as much as he’d like to look toward the future, his mind keeps drifting to that grim day a year ago.

“I keep thinking about this poisoning all the time,” he said. “I can’t forget it because I’m dealing with it every day.”

Eighty-year-old Ralph Ostlund was the oldest of the poisoning victims. He said Sunday he doesn’t intend to let the grim episode slow him down. On Saturday night he said he went to a pig roast and danced all night at an American Legion Hall in the neighboring town of Stockholm.

“It’s one year gone by. Everything’s going great,” Ostlund said.

AP-ES-04-25-04 1333EDT