LEWISTON – Erica Griffin and her family can barely stand to watch the news. They want to know all they can about the killing of Casey Stanley but much of what they hear is exaggerated or downright wrong.

“Everything I hear about him is so disrespectful,” said Griffin, who dated Stanley for four years. “All you hear is bad stuff. Casey was a good guy. He was doing things to make our lives better.”

Griffin was on the phone with Stanley Wednesday night minutes before he was stabbed at Moulton Field behind Florian’s Market in Auburn. Witnesses said he had stepped away from a crowd of people so he could talk with her.

Stanley was stabbed in the chest in the woods near the river, they said. He struggled up a hill to a paved walkway before collapsing.

Erica and her family learned a short time later that he had died of the wound.

“Now there are all these rumors going around town,” said Loretta Leet, Erica’s mother. “People act like they knew Casey when they didn’t. There were a lot of good things about him. He was very dedicated to my daughter. It was all about Erica for him.”

Leet considered Stanley her son-in-law. The couple had talked about getting married and having children.

Other family members also feel warmly toward Stanley as well. They gathered Thursday night in a Lewiston apartment, sharing memories, talking about the investigation, occasionally laughing but mostly crying or fighting back tears.

“I looked up to Casey like a brother,” said 17-year-old Ryan Turcotte, Erica’s brother. “He gave me a lot of positive advice. I was going to give my sister away when they got married.”

Sitting slumped in a chair, B.J. Baitler lamented that he was out of town when his best friend was stabbed and killed. Baitler was working in Casco Wednesday night. He said Stanley had recently taken a job in Harpswell but they hung out as much as they could.

“It’s frustrating,” Baitler said. “I couldn’t do anything to stop it.”

Stanley was likely down in the woods behind Florian’s passing time while waiting for Erica to get out of work. Baitler said his friend would not have gone down there looking for trouble.

“It was just a place to hang out. It wasn’t like he was down there starting anything,” Baitler said. “Casey had his problems like anyone else. But he was kind and gentle. He would do anything for anyone. He wouldn’t have been the instigator.”

No one in the room could envision Stanley inviting the attack.

“He loved his friends,” said Scott Baitler, sitting quietly on the other side of the room. “He just liked to have a good time.”

Stanley had suffered his share of problems, his friends said.

There was a time when he partied too much, got in fights and was arrested for things such as disorderly conduct.

He was getting over that phase of his life.

“He did his time,” Leet said.

The family did not know why Stanley was stabbed. They had heard rumors that he owed someone money. He had recently been in a fight but they did not believe it was anything that warranted retaliation. They could not think of a valid reason for the killing.

“It was done to him for no reason,” Erica said, toying with the heart necklace at her throat. Stanley had given it to her recently as a birthday gift.

Across the Androscoggin River, at the scene of the killing, Rose Griffin was imploring people to help police solve the crime. She wanted to see the suspects arrested to provide a measure of relief for Erica, her niece.

“Casey was a kind person, a good person. He loved Erica with all his heart,” Rose said. “He got along with everybody.”

She had a sheet of paper folded in her hands. She had been showing it to reporters and anybody else who might help the cause. One more time Thursday night, she unfolded it. There, the faces of an Auburn man and woman wanted for questioning in the stabbing stared out.

“Please,” Rose said. “Anybody with information, please call Lewiston and Auburn police. Help them solve the murder. Casey didn’t deserve what happened to him.”