PERU, Maine — A man has been charged with murder in his wife's death.
David Gaudreau, 60, virtually attended a hearing in Oxford County Court Wednesday around 1 p.m., facing a murder charge.
The Oxford County Sheriff's Office responded to the area of 106 Auburn Rd. in Peru — also known as Route 108 — around 7:10 p.m. Tuesday for reports of a crash. Callers told law enforcement a gun was fired from a truck into a car, the Maine Department of Public Safety said in a release Wednesday.
First responders found a blue Hyundai on the side of the road with a dead woman in the driver's seat. She was later identified as Dale Gaudreau, 59, the release stated.
The sheriff's office and Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit-South investigated the incident and learned that Gaudreau had called several family members and told them he shot his wife, according to the release.
Shortly before midnight, David Gaudreau surrendered to law enforcement. He was taken to the Oxford County Jail and charged with murder, officials said.
A short distance down the road from the murder scene, Todd and Mary Fenstermacher were settling in to watch the Red Sox on TV, as they always did.
The longtime married couple heard two cars driving fast by their house and assumed that they were probably speeders passing illegally, as they said cars often do on that stretch of road leaving downtown Peru.
But, as Todd reached the living room, he quickly learned this was not the case.
"By the time I got in the room, they were right in front of the window," he recalled in a Wednesday interview. "And, to me, it looked like gray pickup on the outside and a sedan on the inside. The had come even and the windows were down, and I thought, what is he trying to do?"
Todd described what police later confirmed — a dark pickup and a sedan crashed near Dirigo Elementary School. The couple heard that too, and then, something else.
"They got to the top of the rise, as far as I could see, and then you heard about seven shots," Todd continued. "Pop, pop, pop..."
One Rumford business owner wished not to speak on camera in the immediate aftermath of the incident, but said he was shocked by David's alleged actions.
He also wrote glowingly about Dale.
"She was a sweetheart," he wrote in a text message. "It would be the last people I would have thought this would have happened to, honestly."
Classes in RSU 56, which serves the towns of Canton, Carthage, Dixfield, and Peru, were canceled Wednesday due to the incident.
"Good Morning from RSU 56. There will be no school in RSU 56 today, 5/29/24 due to route 108 being closed still from the incident that occurred last night in Peru," the school district posted on its website Wednesday morning. "This closure will not change the last day of school, more information will be coming out later today. Thank you and have a great day."
A portion of Route 108 was shut down Tuesday evening and into Wednesday morning. The road reopened around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The judge ruled David Gaudreau was to be held without bail until his next hearing — a date that has not yet been set.