Many posted loving remembrances about Paris teen killed Thursday afternoon

PARIS – Hours after Megan Ripley was killed by a hunter, her mother logged on to her daughter’s account on mainehorse.com, a Web site for equestrians with a popular forum.

Signing in with her daughter’s online name, “Standardbred99,” Ripley’s mother titled her post, “Horse world loses one.”

She wrote, “a terrible thing has happened…my precious sweet daughter “Standardbred99″ has been accidentally shot and killed by a hunter today behind our house…you will not be hearing from her anymore, but I thank you all so very much for always being so helpful with her questions.”

Although the family chose not to speak to the media Friday, it was clear from the many posts Ripley wrote on the online forum from September to December that she loved horses, especially her own spirited mount.

When the 18-year-old signed up for the site at the end of September, Ripley wrote: “I just registered yesterday and thought I would say Hi! I have a 7yo standardbred mare named Diva. She was a racer but has been retrained to be ridden. She is such a sweetheart. She is my first horse, I just got her back in June. My whole family has fallen in love with her. I also have a 6yo blind springer spaniel named Moka. He hasn’t met Diva yet, I don’t think he will care much about her anyway.”

Instead of a photo of herself, she uploaded a photograph of Diva in a red halter, placidly grazing in a high, grassy field. Ripley also listed her interests, in this order: dogs, horses, skiing, snowboarding and football.

Few details about the incident have yet been released. The Office of the Maine Attorney General is reviewing all the evidence, too, to determine whether charges against Bean are warranted.

In a posting on a Web site called Maine Riders Forum, which is similar to mainehorse.com, a writer called “Christine” maintained that Ripley and her brother were riding a four-wheeler out behind their barn Thursday afternoon. After Ripley was shot, she yelled to her brother that something bad had happened and to get her Dad, but there was little they could do.

None of the above statements has been verified by officials, however, and no one responded to this particular post.

Shannon Jipson, the overseer of the online forum, maineriders.com, said the community is a close-knit group who share stories and advice not just about their horses, but also about their families, their other pets, their hardships and their lives. Jipson is 32 and lives in Windham where she owns a stable with her husband.

“I never met her in person,” Jipson said by phone Friday, speaking of Ripley. “We talked on the Internet together. She was a good person. She was very sweet; she loved her horse, Diva. She talked about her family a lot, especially her brother.”

Jipson added, “She was a very supportive person, she was always there to offer advice when she had any to give.”

Ripley was pronounced dead at Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway after 5 p.m. Thursday, according to a hospital administrator.

Family and church members of the Ripley’s church, The Tabernacle of the Congregation, gathered at the hospital for an emotional evening.

“Many of their church family came out,” said the Rev. Donald Mayberry of the First Congregational Church in Paris. A volunteer chaplain at the hospital, he sat with the family until their own pastor arrived.

“And it was a wonderful thing to watch the love in that family in the midst of a tremendous tragedy. It was a very painful thing for everybody, including the staff at the hospital. My heart goes out to them,” he said.

Ronald Leavitt, the minister of the family’s church, said Friday that the Ripleys did not want to give more information about their daughter so as not to make a big story around her death.

Ripley was home-schooled. Dr. Mark Eastman, SAD 17 superintendent, had records showing she was a registered home-schooled student two years ago, but had no other records. The family had recently moved to their home on Christian Ridge Road, neighbors said. They bought property on the road from Ralph and Bonnie Ripley in September 2005.

It seems that few neighbors knew Megan Ripley. Stacey Bobrowski, who lives nearby to the Ripleys, said she she had seen a young woman riding earlier in the day Thursday near her home and wondered if it had been Megan.

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Other neighbors were anxious about how close the accident was to their homes. According to Lt. Tibbetts, Ripley was shot about 100 yards into a forest that edges an expansive field behind the Ripley’s home.

“We’re going to be putting signs on our property just to take the precaution,” Bobrowski said. She has two daughters, ages 2 and 8, as well as a small terrier. “And we’ll put blaze orange on the dog even in the invisible fence.”

Jenna Smith, who owns Willowcroft Farm a short way up Christian Ridge Road, said she and her husband Scott are typically anxious around hunting season and always drape their horses in orange.

But after hearing the news of Ripley’s death, Smith said she and her husband would be tacking up “No Hunting” signs on their 65 acres of land, much of which is crisscrossed by trails that link up to paths behind the Ripley home.

“We’ll post all of it,” she said by phone Friday.

After Ripley’s mom had written her goodbye message for her daughter, many members responded. One called “Sully” wrote, “Mom must be a very strong person to be able to post that message to let us all know what happened. I hope they find some sort of peace, and I hope Standardbred 99 is someplace where she can be around horses.”