PARIS – A man found dead in his car on railroad tracks in Bethel last month may have been beaten with a cast-iron pan and strangled with a belt before a train hit his vehicle, according to a police affidavit.

Police believe Scott A. Libby, 25, of Raymond was beaten and strangled to death after making sexual advances to a former employee.

Libby’s body was found sprawled across the front seat of his 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt after it was hit by a slow-moving train on Feb. 20, police said.

The car was covered with blood inside and out and the bloodstained handle of a cast-iron pan was found in it, police said.

Twelve days later, Maine State Police arrested Agostino J. Samson, 23, of Bethel and Windham and charged him with murder.

Libby and Samson had known each other for about seven years, and Samson had worked last summer for Libby, who had a landscaping business in Raymond.

Libby met Samson at the Bethel Hostel late on Feb. 19 to collect $400 he had loaned Samson more than a year ago and to return a watch and silver bracelet held as collateral, Maine State Police Detective Herbert Leighton wrote in an affidavit filed in Oxford County Superior Court.

According to Leighton’s sworn statement:

Samson had been living at the Route 2 hostel for about a month and working as a cook at the Matterhorn Ski Bar on Sunday River Road in Newry. The hostel is near where Libby’s car was found, on train tracks west of the Barker Road crossing.

Although Samson initially told police that the transfer of money and jewelry had been completed without incident, he later said Libby “made sexual advances toward him, placing his hand onto/in the area of his groin,” Leighton wrote.

“Agostino said he punched Libby in the face two times, causing Libby’s nose to bleed,” but Libby still persisted in his sexual advances and offered to pay him money.”

The detective noted that the autopsy showed no injuries to Libby’s nose.

Dr. Marguerite Dewitt, deputy chief medical examiner for the state, said Libby died of “asphyxia due to strangulation and blunt-force trauma to the head.”

The blood on the pan handle matched Libby’s, according to the detective, and the handle was consistent with two pans that were recently missing from the hostel, the affidavit said.

A woven leather belt that appeared to be damaged was seized from Samson’s room at the hostel, Leighton said. Red-brown stained business cards belonging to Libby and “several apparent bloodstain patterns” were found about a quarter-mile south of the hostel on Westwood Road, a private way that abuts the hostel.

Leighton also noted that when Libby’s body was found, his pants pockets were turned inside out and there was no money on him.

Police photographed contusions on Samson’s hands, which Samson said he received after a box fell on his hand at work; he later said the injuries were a result of punching a refrigerator at work.

According to the affidavit, Samson called Libby’s mother, Nancy, of Raymond on Feb. 20 to say he had heard about Libby’s death from his sister. Nancy Libby told police Samson “appeared to be crying quite hard on the telephone.”

Nancy Libby told police her son left their home late on Feb. 19 to meet someone named “AJ” and collect $400 he owed Libby. She said he was holding a watch and another piece of jewelry belonging to “AJ” as collateral on the loan.

Samson has been held without bail at the Oxford County Jail since his arrest on March 4. A grand jury is expected to hear the case this spring.


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