Another year has come and gone, and as we look back on the events that shaped 2025 in our corner of the world, we find a little bit of everything.

There was more than enough tragedy to go around, including the deaths of three people who perished in a bizarre, out-of-the-blue shooting rampage in Sabattus.

We got our share of grim news in the form of trusted school officials charged with heinous crimes and a prominent lawyer being investigated post mortem for allegations of financial misdeeds.

There was plenty to be sad and mad about, as is always the case, but it wasn’t all gloom. In 2025, we were titillated by a property dispute involving the Hells Angels and many of us were introduced to a magical mushroom called chaga.

To deduce what stories were the most popular in the Sun Journal coverage area, we simply crunched the numbers to see which of those stories our readers clicked on the most.

1. Three die in shooting rampage in Sabattus

It was the kind of situation Mainers have come to know too well: a mentally deranged man causing death and mayhem against strangers for no reason anyone can discern.

It happened on April 2 when 29-year-old James Davis III shot and killed his mother while they were traveling along King Road in Sabattus. Davis then opened fire on motorists passing at the intersection of King and Middle roads.

In the aftermath, three people were dead, including Davis, his mother, 47-year-old Christine Smith, and Katherine Williams, 53, of Sabattus, who was struck by Davis’ gunfire as she drove up Route 9.

Others were seriously wounded. Tyson Turner, 19, of Jay and David Wilson, 35, of Hartford were each traveling in separate vehicles on Route 9 and both were struck by Davis’ gunfire before Davis shot and killed himself.

The tragedy horrified a community still rattled by the mass shooting less than two years earlier in Lewiston. And when details began to emerge, the two shootings shared similarities.

Davis, it was revealed later, was likely suffering a mental health crisis when he killed his mother and started firing at random.

But unlike 40-year-old Robert Card, who killed 18 and wounded 13 in a mass shooting in October of 2023, investigators found no prior mental health history for Davis.

With 2025 at an end, it remains a mystery why a 29-year-old homebody with no obvious history of violence or longstanding mental illness suddenly snapped.

2. Auburn Middle School coach charged with sex crimes 

In February, the local school community was shocked when an Auburn Middle School basketball coach was arrested, accused of having sex with 13- and 14-year-old girls.

Investigators said Dyllan St. Peter, 19, had been engaging in sex acts with the girls over a period between late 2024 and early 2025. He was charged with gross sexual assault.

It was a stunning news story with a futuristic twist. The 13-year-old, it was revealed, had used artificial intelligence to create a fake birth certificate meant to convince St. Peter that she was 16-years-old.

Investigators said the relationships began when St. Peter contacted the girls online through Snapchat. Both girls, police said, claimed to be 16 years old.

St. Peter had sex with the 14-year-old over a period of days, according to a police detective, before she blocked him on social media.

When St. Peter went to speak to the 13-year-old about it, police said, he began having sexual relations with her as well, believing her to be 16 years old.

Police were not convinced that St. Peter had been duped. On New Year’s Eve, it was reported, three people — including the 13-year-old’s sister — informed St. Peter that the girl he was having sex with was underage.

However, when the girl produced the fake birth certificate, police said, St. Peter continued having sexual relations with her, police said.

The older sibling of one of the girls reported the situation to police and St. Peter was arrested by the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office.

According to Maine law, a person younger than 14 cannot legally consent to sex, so the matter is considered sexual assault.

St. Peter is no longer working for the school system. He is expected to go to trial in early 2026.

3. Lewiston Chinese restaurant owner taken by ICE

On May 21, a popular Chinese food restaurant in Lewiston abruptly closed. A simple sign was placed on the door of Canton Wok at 920 Lisbon St. and the business has remained dark since.

Soon after, it was revealed that Xing Feng Dong, owner of the business, had been taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, accused of being in the country illegally.

Lewiston police, asked about the arrest, could provide no information to the curious. As it turns out, ICE officials no longer share information with local police and they don’t announce when they are coming to make an arrest.

Dong, a native of the People’s Republic of China, was taken to a federal pod at the Cumberland County Jail in Portland.

The arrest of Dong, a 41-year-old father of two, generated heated debate on social media. Many described the man as a hardworking family man who somehow managed to remember the names of all of his restaurant customers.

Others simply lamented the loss of their favorite Chinese food restaurant, one that had operated in Lewiston for two decades.

As the year ends, the status of Dong is unclear. Family members said that Dong is working with immigration officials to obtain his green card. However, other sources reported that Dong had been ordered to leave the country in 2008 and had lost an appeal in 2016.

The Canton Wok has not re-opened.

4. Auburn businessman fixes Sebago Lake property violations

In September, it was announced that restoration of two properties on Sebago Lake at the center of a longstanding legal battle was complete.

Auburn businessman Donald Buteau and his real estate holding firm, Management Controls LLC, also paid a fine of $650,000 before restoring the landscape on Fernwood Road as promised.

The restorations had been ordered after contractors working for Buteau cut down trees, bulldozed bushes and shrubs, and installed at least 400 feet of riprap rock down to the shoreline in the fall of 2021, changing the shoreline dramatically at two side-by-side properties.

The changes to the shoreline resulted in a yearslong legal battle that culminated in 2004 when the town of Raymond announced it had secured a settlement with Buteau approved by the Department of Environmental Protection.

The settlement involved the fine and promises that the landscape would be restored to its earlier condition.

Buteau kept his word. By late September, more than 500 plants and shrubs — including high-bush blueberries and other native shrubs — were planted along the shoreline and in front of the properties. Also, 23 saplings of 4- to 6-inch diameter were added back to the landscape.

5. Lifelong resident leaves property to Buckfield … or the Hells Angels

In April it was announced that James Jordan, a lifelong resident of Buckfield, had left a property at 150 Depot St. to the motorcycle group Hells Angels.

Sort of.

Six articles on the warrant ballot in June asked Buckfield voters to accept the property at 150 Depot St. and funds for scholarships from Jordan, who had died at the age of 80. If residents had voted to not accept the gifts, the land would have been given to the nearest chapter of the Hells Angels.

Voters, predictably, opted to accept the gift on behalf of the town, thus denying the motorcycle group ownership of the estate.

The story had some twists.

Jordan had no connection to the motorcycle group, nor was even a motorcycle rider, said his friend Roland Frechette of Hebron. Frechette described it as more of a bad joke, and a way to make sure town residents accepted the gifts.

6. Former Jay art teacher charged with sexually exploiting teen

The school community in Jay was jolted in March by news that a popular art teacher had been charged with sexual exploitation of a student.

Police say that after he was caught exchanging nude photos with a teenager, Jan M. Barlow, 48, of Auburn then tried to convince the student to destroy evidence.

Barlow was arrested March 8 after the mother of the victim reportedly caught Barlow and the student together on the video chat app FaceTime in late February.

Barlow had been a teacher in the RSU 73 school system since 2010 and was teaching at Spruce Mountain at the time of the investigation. He was placed on administrative leave soon after his arrest and has since resigned.

In addition to sexual exploitation of a minor, Barlow was additionally charged with dissemination of sexually explicit material.

He was released on $5,000 cash bail two days after his arrest. A grand jury indicted Barlow in November and the case is expected to go to trial in 2026.

7. Maine chaga going gangbusters

At the start of the year, it was revealed that chaga had become big business in Maine. It was being foraged, farmed and commercially sold and the returns were immense.

Many of our readers had just one question: What in the heck is chaga?

It’s a fungus, as it turns out. A lowly mushroom that has become incredibly popular across Europe and the U.S. in the last decade.

The attraction, devotees of chaga say, is its potential healing power for ailments and conditions from diabetes to cancer. Though not yet backed by science, chaga is highly touted as an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and immune booster.

Two entrepreneurs in Livermore Falls didn’t need a scientific endorsement to get excited about chaga. Nikki Leroux and Justin Triquet are so excited by the unsightly fungus they’ve made it part of their daily routine, spent hundreds of hours doing research, formed a corporation called JustNiks Mycosilva and forged a business partnership with a chaga company in Estonia.

The Triquets work year-round in the woods inoculating trees, implanting more than 2 million chaga dowels since they started. Last summer, they started seeing their efforts come to fruition.

The payout for chaga is 400% return on investment, according to the Triquets. But chaga requires patience as the first harvest takes five to eight years to materialize.

8. Woman’s ‘labor of love’ at Sabattus Pond draws scrutiny from state regulators

Lucille Laliberte spent a good portion of the summer slowly and methodically cleaning up some of the exposed bed on the east shore of Sabattus Pond.

And it wasn’t just beer bottles, old tires and discarded fishing gear the 77-year-old was clearing away. She also snatched up what she figured were unsightly invasive plants she saw as a blight on the pond she had loved her whole life.

When she reached out for help through the Sun Journal’s Sun Spots column, things got ugly. Sabattus town officials took notice, as did the Department of Environmental Protection.

It was then revealed that Laliberte’s heartfelt efforts were likely violating state ordinances without approval for her activity on the pond. Specifically, state officials said, Laliberte was in violation of the Natural Resources Protection Act, which forbids any alterations to the pond including removal of plants.

Once Laliberte was informed there were concerns with her efforts, she self-reported to DEP and a review began of the work she had done on the pond.

9. Downtown Lewiston store shut down for code violations

In late September, the Mogadishu Business Center was shut down after a customer complained about bad conditions at the Lisbon Street market.

The business at 240 Lisbon St., which encompassed a store, clothing shop and restaurant was closed Sept. 24 after an inspection by city code enforcement officials.

City officials said an inspector found an “infestation” of cockroaches and mice at the downtown business, as well as sections of the building in disrepair.

The business’s license to serve food was suspended and the market side of the store was condemned.

The business, which had been selling hot food for takeout, is owned by Shukri Abasheikh, known as Mama Shukri by those close to her. She opened it as the Mogadishu Store in 2006 after coming to Lewiston from Atlanta, Georgia, four years earlier.

City officials said the business may operate again if it is brought up to proper code standards.

10. Deceased Lewiston attorney under scrutiny for handling of client funds

When local lawyer, author and former mayor Paul Dionne died in April at the age of 82, the legal community went into mourning.

But the mourning became complicated. Soon after Dionne’s death, allegations emerged that a “significant amount of client funds” were found to have been misappropriated by Dionne’s law firm.

A pair of attorneys tasked with overseeing Dionne’s business began notifying his former clients to advise them about Dionne’s mishandling of their money.

And once the matter of Dionne’s alleged impropriety became public knowledge, more former clients came forward with complaints of their own.

The lawyers who had been put in charge of managing Dionne’s business have been working with his former clients, outlining a number of options they might take to recoup their funds.

As the matter is investigated, many in the community have expressed skepticism about the allegations.

In Lewiston and Auburn, Dionne was a luminary. He had been a lawyer and assistant district attorney in the Twin Cities and served four years as mayor of Lewiston in the 1980s. Many credited him with overseeing the redevelopment of Lisbon Street into a thriving corridor of commerce.