FARMINGTON — Friends and family of Grace Burton are organizing an auction for Sunday to raise money to help find the person who stabbed her to death two months ago.

The auction is set for 2 p.m. at the Farmington Elks Lodge in West Farmington. Proceeds will go toward a reward fund that stands at more than $5,000, Burton’s son, Robert Butterfield, said Tuesday.

“People have been very generous,” he said of the contributions sent to Franklin Savings Bank and the amounts collected in small canisters on local store counters.

Likewise, local businesses and individuals have generously donated for the auction.

“People have donated all sorts of things,” he said.

Some of the items include four greens passes to Sugarloaf Golf Course valued at $300, four tires valued at nearly $400, 25 bales of hay valued at $100, a tattoo costing $100, and an eye exam with Dr. Troy Norton, valued at $80. Other items include a weed whacker, ceiling fan, oil burner cleaning, and gardening products from Living Acres. 

Butterfield met Wednesday with friends and organizers, Teresa Martin and Darryl Seamon, to go over the items for Sunday.

Burton, 81, died June 21 from stab wounds received in a confrontation with  an intruder who broke into her Fairbanks Road apartment in the early morning hours.

The family wants to know who that person is.

“Somebody knows. We need that closure,” said Mary Butterfield, Robert’s wife.

“No one knows what it’s like,” she said. “It changes your whole perspective” when a loved one dies so violently.

Butterfield said she can’t go into a store without hearing someone still voicing words of fear for their safety. Those people shouldn’t have to be dealing with that, she said.

“It breaks my heart,” she said of what this has done not only to her family but to the community. 

Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said Monday that there are no new developments in the case.

“The family feels frustrated and it’s hard,” Robert Butterfield said.

They gathered Saturday at Goosefare Brook, which empties into the Atlantic at Old Orchard Beach, to spread her ashes at sea. She used to live nearby and loved the ocean, he added.

A poem written by Burton to her grandchildren was read, Mary said.

“They loved her and miss her. It brought a little piece of peace,” she said. “But there’s no real peace till this person is found.”

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