KENNEBUNK, Maine — People will gather Friday night on Main Street in Kennebunk to remember an 18-year-old girl who killed 45 years ago.
Mary Tanner went missing on July 7, 1978, after a night out with friends. She was found dead in a field two days later in Lyman.
Tanner was a majorette in high school, and the youngest of four siblings. Her oldest brother, Charlie, is now 75 years old and hopes the person responsible for Mary's death will confess.
"Sure, would like to see them arrested. But it's not going to bring her back," Charlie Tanner said.
Charlie said he was fiercely protective of Mary, the only of his three sisters he felt he got along well with. He said his eldest sister was passionate about her academics, and that his middle sister was very religious. He and Mary connected over enjoying being out with friends.
"Neighborhood kids always said the Tanner girls had two fathers," Tanner said. "I don't know if it was [a] premonition or what, but I was very concerned about her always."
It was friends who last saw Mary. Maine State Police said she had been out partying with friends in various locations in Kennebunk the night she went missing. They say she asked friends to drop her off at the intersection of Route 9 and Route 35, known as Cooper's Corner, near Lower Kennebunk Village.
Police say that is the last time anyone saw her.
"I kept saying, 'Why us? Why now? Why here?' No answer yet. Forty-five years," Tanner said. "I'm past it, but I'm not over it."
Police say two days later, someone found her body in the middle of Gracie Evans Field in Lyman, about 6 miles from where she was last seen.
"It wasn't like her to just go somewhere and not tell anybody," Tanner said.
Charlie said the detective who had been assigned to Mary's case recently retired, and that a new detective is taking over. Maine State Police said they have interviewed several suspects over the years. NEWS CENTER Maine plans to speak with investigators soon and will update this story when possible.
Police ruled out Mary's boyfriend, Mike Higgins, who was in Massachusetts preparing for his brother's funeral on the night she disappeared and the days after.
Friday night, people will gather on Main Street in Kennebunk on the bridge over the Mousam River for a candlelight vigil to remember her and the milestone of 45 years with no answer.