“Who killed Roger Stewart? Maybe it was you!”

Those two lines capture the intrigue of a new Seance Murder Mystery program hosted by Pejepscot History Center (PHC) Oct. 27-29 in its 19th century mansion, the Skolfield-Whittier House Museum.

Running for three sessions each evening — at 4, 5:30 and 7 p.m. — the hourlong program begins in the formal dining room with canapes and cocktails. Participants then move throughout the rooms of the house to search for clues to who did the dirty deed.

This event follows PHC’s 2021 sell-out Live CLUE game in the Victorian house.

“The clear feedback from that event was, ‘Do it again!’” said PHC Director Larissa Vigue Picard. “We thought it would be fun to change it up this year and kill off a real historical character — and a real scoundrel — involving actual Skolfield-Whittier family members as potential culprits. But the story is entirely fictitious.”

Seatings are limited to 13 guests, each who assume a character in the mystery. Following the seance, participants look for clues throughout the rooms of the mansion to eliminate fellow suspects and find the murderer of Roger Stewart. One of the participants will be murderer. An actual business associate of Alfred Skolfield, the home’s patriarch shipbuilder and ship captain, Roger Stewart was indeed a scoundrel — a slave owner from Mobile, Alabama.

Pejepscot History Center has focused research over the past couple of years, including a college intern over the summer, to uncover the family’s ties in the first generation to the 19th century slave economy, and how those connections resulted in their wealth and status.

Tickets for the 21-plus event are $25 for PHC members and $30 general admission. Participants can also purchase raffle tickets to vie for one of two “Basket of Spirits” — one of top-shelf liquors and one of fancy non-alcoholic mocktail components — donated by the PHC board.

Raffle tickets are $5 each or $20 for five. For more information and online tickets, visit pejepscothistorical.org/special-events.

Pejepscot History Center preserves, interprets and promotes the rich history of Brunswick, Topsham and Harpswell through its collections, programs, and historic house museums. For more information, call (207) 729-6606 or visit pejepscothistorical.org.

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