Maine man suspected of fatally stabbing 3 people is held without bail after court appearance

No bail for Maine triple slaying suspect in NH

ROCHESTER, N.H. — A Maine man charged with killing two men and a 10-year-old boy in his home state late last month will be held without bail in New Hampshire pending extradition proceedings, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Thayne Ormsby of Orient, Maine, showed no emotion as he was arraigned Tuesday in Rochester District Court by video hookup from the Strafford County jail. He did not have a lawyer and did not enter a plea.

An extradition hearing was scheduled for July 16 in Dover, where Ormsby was arrested Friday on a fugitive from justice charge.

Ormsby is charged in the stabbing deaths of Jeffrey Ryan, 55; Ryan’s son, Jesse; and Jason Dehahn, 30, at Ryan’s home in the northern Maine town of Amity, near the Canadian border. The three were last seen alive June 22; their bodies were discovered the next day.

The 20-year-old Ormsby was arrested after police zeroed in on him through DNA and fingerprint evidence obtained from a beer can and cigarette butt in Ryan’s home.

So far, the only hint at motive for the carnage at Ryan’s mobile home was Ormsby’s statement to Maine detectives that he killed Ryan because he thought he was a drug dealer. He gave investigators no information about a motive for killing Ryan’s son and Dehahn, a neighbor.

A relative of one of the victims have suggested Ormsby targeted Ryan for a different reason.

Dehahn’s brother, Jake, told the Bangor Daily News that Ormsby planned to move in with Jeffrey Ryan’s 16-year-old daughter and the girl’s mother in Weston, Maine, but Ryan had told Ormsby to stay away from the girl.

Investigators are looking into relationships and other possible motives, said Bill Stokes, Maine’s deputy attorney general. For now, however, investigators declined to release further details.

“A lot of things will come out in court as we get him back from New Hampshire, if we have a bail hearing,” Stokes said.

After the killings, Ormsby went to the Weston home and burned his bloodied clothes in the furnace, according to a statement he made to investigators. It’s unclear whether the girl or her mother knew he’d been there.

At the time of the killings, Ormsby was living with Robert and Joy Strout in Orient, Maine. Investigators said the Strouts’ daughter is the mother of Ryan’s 16-year-old daughter and a longtime friend of Ormsby’s mother.

Strout, who has not been charged, told state police detectives he gave Ormsby a ride out of state, to Dover, N.H., after the killings because Ormsby had threatened him and his family. Strout also said he drove Ormsby to a bog, where Ormsby threw a knife in the water. Maine State Police divers found the knife Saturday, authorities said.

A woman who answered the phone Tuesday at the home of Ormsby’s mother declined to comment and hung up.

Associated Press writer David Sharp in Portland, Maine, contributed to this report.