AUBURN — A Wilton woman was charged Monday with kidnapping three young children last fall in Livermore who were in a stranger’s parked Jeep that the woman commandeered before crashing it in Jay with the kids inside.

An Androscoggin County grand jury indicted Shannon Lee Dupree, 42, on three counts of kidnapping, each charge a Class A felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

She is facing nine other charges, including three counts of criminal restraint of a child younger than 8. Each of those charges is a Class C felony that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Authorities said Dupree denied having any recollection of the events of Nov. 9 when she got into a stranger’s SUV that was parked at a variety store and gas station on Route 4 in Livermore. She drove the vehicle about 15 miles with three young children in the car before plowing the Jeep into a house and garage on a dead-end road in Jay, according to court records.

An Androscoggin County Sheriff’s deputy responded to a report of a domestic disturbance that morning at 96 Butter Hill Road in Livermore. One witness reported that a man and a woman, identified later as Dupree, had been fighting in the driveway.

A deputy headed to the scene was flagged down by a panicked Thomas Burgess standing at the gas pumps at Brettun’s Variety, according to court records. Burgess said he had parked his 2010 Wrangler at the pumps while he went into the store. When he returned, the Jeep and his children, ages 2, 4 and 6, were gone, he told the deputy. He said a customer told him a woman had gotten in the vehicle and had driven away. Burgess told the deputy there was a pistol in the Jeep.

A Livermore Falls police officer saw the Jeep entering that town on Route 4 and attempted to stop it, but the driver kept going. He pursued the Jeep into Jay, where the driver stopped at the C.N. Brown gas station, got out, refused to obey Bachelder’s commands, then got back in the vehicle and continued driving north on Route 4.

Maine State Police put down spike mats on Route 4, puncturing the Jeep’s tires, but it continued to Greenridge Way and stopped at the last residence on the dead-end road. As officers approached, the driver accelerated the Jeep in an effort to squeeze between a house and a garage, but hit both buildings and came to a stop. Dupree was pulled from the vehicle and resisted arrest as she was being put into a cruiser, according to court records.

Burgess was brought to the scene and reunited with his children. There were no reported injuries, but there was substantial property damage, authorities said.

Two warrants have been issued for Dupree’s arrest, one for the current charges and one for failing to appear in court on unrelated charges.

Her whereabouts are unknown, according to a grand jury report.

When questioned by a deputy after her arrest, Dupree told him that she was able to recall the three children when asked about them specifically, but “denied any recollection of taking the Jeep and the children inside it,” he wrote in court papers. “Based on my observations and interview, I felt Shannon was under the influence of a mind-altering substance.”

According to the complaint filed with the court, Dupree was convicted of burglary in December 2015 in Androscoggin County Superior Court and convicted of theft by unauthorized taking or transfer in December 2010 in Wiscasset District Court.

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