BETHEL – When the police cruiser shrieked past him toward the edge of town, Doron Haendel worried about his friends at the Black Bear Bed and Breakfast in neighboring Newry.

“It’s all by itself out there,” he thought Monday afternoon, hours before word spread that the innkeeper, her daughter and two other people had been brutally killed.

By Tuesday morning, the gruesome news was already spreading across the resort town’s restaurants and shops. Haendel, himself an innkeeper, learned details of the deaths while standing in line at the Bethel Shop ‘n Save.

“Everybody was shocked,” Haendel said. “They couldn’t believe this had happened here.”

They still can’t.

Across this town of 2,400, people tried Wednesday to understand how four people in their community could be mutilated.

“The community will not forget this. Period,” Haendel said. “People will be talking about this for 25 years.”

On Wednesday, some worried for their safety. Others were sad.

Michael Tardif, who has lived in Bethel for four years, worried that the news would make people more cautious and suspicious.

Only last week, the restaurant owner sent a tourist looking for a room to the Black Bear. Innkeeper Julie Bullard and her daughter, Selby, who were killed, were customers at Tardif’s restaurant, the Taste of Eden Vegan Restaurant. He helped them when he could.

When he heard the news, he worried that he might have put them in danger.

“We live in an uncertain world,” Tardif said. “You really can’t trust anything out there. I think people are going to lock their doors.”

Too soon

Officials in both Newry and Bethel said Wednesday that it is too soon to know whether the towns will have a community memorial for the victims.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Scott Cole, Bethel’s town manager. “I think people are still waiting for more information.”

The biggest question is why, said Derek Vail of Bethel.

Ever since his ex-girlfriend called him at his home with the news, he’d tried to figure out what would cause someone to hurt these folks. Like so many people in town, he knew Selby and her best friend, Cynthia Beatson.

Rumors, many unfounded, have been spreading.

One suggested that seven people, not four, were killed. There was also conjecture about the suspect, Christian Nielsen.

“I just think he snapped,” Vail said. “That’s all I can imagine. Maybe there wasn’t a reason why.”

To Haendel, there is little to understand. The crime was so heinous that it will never happen again here, he said.

“There’s nothing in the air or the water,” he said.

On Tuesday evening, Doron Haendel’s wife, Sharon, mentioned adding locks to their home. But Doron argued against it.

People shouldn’t be frightened, he said. For now, they ought to remember the people who died.

He’d met Julie and Cynthia, he said. Selby was a friend.

“She was the most friendly, gregarious person in town,” Haendel said. He’d seen her only last week. She was bandaged from surgery she’d endured, a surgery she’d had to continue repairs for a broken leg suffered at Sunday River last winter.

“She was a free spirit,” he said.

Cheryl Bogart, who runs a register at the Shop ‘n Save, also knew the three women.

“In a small town, the cashier is like a bartender,” Bogart said. She said she had spent the days since the tragedy seeing the sad faces of many people in mourning.

“I’d like to see it run its course,” she said. “When it’s over, we’ll move on.”