FAYETTE – The walking path around a cove on Lovejoy Pond where 14-year-old Marlee Johnston died a year ago was blanketed in leaves Friday, a peaceful scene.

On Nov. 26, 2005, the path was covered with snow and Johnston lay dead in the nearby water, the victim of a violent slaying.

Her father and brother found her body about 45 minutes after she left their nearby home to walk the family’s two Pekingese dogs.

Her accused killer, neighbor Patrick Armstrong, was charged with murder and has been held at a youth detention center since his arrest three days after the slaying.

A year later, police still have not released the cause or manner of death. An affidavit and other information have remained sealed since Maine State Police arrested Armstrong, who was 14 at the time.

The case against Armstrong, now 15, is scheduled to move forward at 8:30 a.m. Friday, Dec. 8, at 7th District Court in Augusta, when Armstrong is scheduled to appear at a status conference with his lawyer, Walter McKee.

A state-ordered evaluation of Armstrong was completed, but it remains unclear whether he will be prosecuted as an adult or a child.

McKee said his client, who has remained at the Mountain View Youth Development Center in Penobscot County since his arrest, is doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances.

‘No justice’

Marlee Johnston’s father, Ted, said in May that no matter what the outcome of the judicial process, it cannot bring his daughter back.

“There can be no justice,” he said. “My daughter is dead. We miss her every day, and it’s very difficult without her. The legal process is going to go forward. We have no interest in anything but making sure people remember Marlee for what she was about and the positive things she did.”

Ted Johnston was not available for comment for this story.

His daughter, an eighth-grader at Winthrop Middle School at the time of her death, was a popular, outgoing girl with a positive attitude. She was an avid reader, a talented musician and a skilled skier.

A reading room was established in her memory at the school. Marlee’s Reading Room was dedicated at the school earlier this month, Principal Karen Criss said.

The Johnstons gave the school a fairly large amount of money, Criss said, and a former conference room was turned into a reading room.

A lot of paperback books – nearly all fantasy, Marlee’s favorite genre – and comfortable chairs were bought and installed along with soft lighting and a rug, Criss said. Piped-in music may be added in the future, but the room is already being used heavily by students.

Among the books were those by Marlee’s favorite author, Tamora Pierce, which all have a very strong female character, Criss said.

Marlee’s parents, Ted Johnston and Marlene Thibodeau, also have set up a scholarship in Marlee’s name at Kents Hill School in Readfield, which she had planned to attend this year as a freshman.

Not forgotten

Two days after Thanksgiving last year, Ted Johnston and his son, Alec, heard from a neighbor that one of their dogs was at her house barking, with its leash still attached.

They set out to look for Marlee, who had left the house with two dogs less than a half-hour earlier.

The other dog had stayed with Marlee, and its barking led Alec to his younger sister’s lifeless body in the water off Loon Watch and Water Lily lanes. It was within a half-mile of the Johnston’s house on Lovejoy Shores Drive. Ted Johnston’s attempts to breathe life back into his daughter were unsuccessful.

Patrick Armstrong and Marlee Johnston were childhood friends but went their separate ways as teenagers. She was enrolled in public schools, and he was home-schooled by his parents, Kenneth and Betty Armstrong, at their home on Water Lily Lane, about one-third of a mile from the Johnstons’ house.

In Fayette, population 1,040, the memory of the slaying still lingers, Town Manager Mark Robinson said.

Not a day goes by that he doesn’t think of it, he said.

“I think it’s fair to say, it’s constantly on my mind,” Robinson said.