The Unsolved Murder of Brian Allen

Jul 16

The discovery of Brian Allen

Trista, Brian Allen’s sister: “For many, many years, I was so raw and hurt and twisted up that I couldn't think until now. I've never talked openly about memories of Brian. I've never told people about what I did with him or what kind of person he was. I've never talked about Brian since he died.
I've never listened to music we listened to. I bottled it up and put it away because it hurt so bad and I didn't wanna face it, but part of healing and moving on is sharing that story. Brian was a really wonderful, kind, loving spirit and people need to know that.
I don't want Brian to be remembered as the guy that was murdered in Orland. That's not Brian. Brian is this guy that if you heard his laugh, he would never ever forget it. He was the guy that if you were broken down on the side of the road, he would stop and help you. If you were at the gas station and didn't have the money to pay for gas, he would fork over his last $5 to help you, and that's what I want people to know.”

Deputy Morang of the Hancock County Sheriff’s Dept. was at dispatch at 6:40AM when a call about an unattended death in Orland came in. He knew the location—right by the G.M. Allen & Sons blueberry plant. G.M. Allen had been around for decades, and they owned a ton of land in Hancock County and were major blueberry growers in the region. It was a cool July morning—about 65 degrees. The Bucksport EMT who called it in, Lance, quickly briefed him on what he had seen—there was a body in the white trailer in a bedroom—it was cold to the touch. There were two men on site—Larry and Eugene.

Deputy Morang saw two separate structures—both were simple and inexpensive manufactured housing—one was white and one was yellow. The white trailer was where the body had been found. The yellow trailer was where the two men had been. Deputy Morang later learned that the yellow trailer was where Eugene lived. The white trailer was where the decedent and his brother, Larry, lived.

Larry told Deputy Morang that he had gone into the yellow trailer to rouse his brother for work—they both worked for the blueberry company. His brother was supposed to be clearing brush that morning a short walk from the trailer. When Larry found him unresponsive, he went to get Eugene, and they returned to the yellow trailer together. They went into the bedroom, shook his legs, and when they got no response, they went to the main building to use the phone to call for help. There was no phone line in either trailer, and apparently, they didn’t have cell phones, though it was 2005, a time when cell phones were in wide use.

Deputy Morang separated Eugene and Larry and spoke to them individually.

The night prior, Eugene explained that Brian had drank, “at least half a bottle of tequila,” having two large drinks of tequila and cream soda. He admitted that both Larry and he had been drinking as well. Around 7:00PM, Eugene decided to put on a baseball game—the Red Sox were playing—but Brian wasn’t interested in watching them. He left at 7:30PM, returning to the white trailer. Larry Allen, Brian’s brother, remained with Eugene in the yellow trailer, and ended up passing out in a recliner. Eugene said that he later went to bed himself in the yellow trailer. Eugene woke up at 5:45AM the next morning and then woke Larry, who was “still passed out” in the recliner. Larry then went to the white trailer to rouse Brian for work. Next thing he knew, Larry was back, telling him that “Brian didn’t look right and wouldn’t wake up.” They returned to the white trailer together and “kicked his feet,” and noticed that “Brian had stopped breathing.” They then drove in a small SUV to the main building together where they summoned help.

According to a police report, at 7:48AM, Hancock County Sheriff’s Office Detective Alan Brown arrived. After being briefed by the other two officers, he walked down the dirt drive toward the white single-wide trailer. There was a 20-year-old red GMC pickup truck, registered to Brian Allen, parked near the trailer with two dogs inside the cab. Larry later said that he had taken the dogs out of the white trailer and “put them in the truck for the time being.” Detective Brown and Deputy Campbell entered the trailer together. They then entered a bedroom to the right of the front entry door, and it was there that they located Brian Allen, deceased, laying on a cot.

There was a small-caliber gunshot wound to his forehead, “just about his left eye,” and there was powder residue around the entry wound, which suggested a very close-range injury. Blood flowed from the wound across his forehead in the direction of gravity as he was laying. A .22 caliber bolt-action rifle with a scope was leaning against the wall at the head of the cot immediately to the left of Brian’s body. A half-full can of beer sat on the floor next to the rifle. The rifle appeared to be placed in the position it was discovered—Detective Brown did not believe it could have fallen that way. There were no other firearms located in the bedroom. At that point, Detective Brown believed that Brian may have been murdered.

The cops canvassed the area, which was sparsely populated—the trailers were essentially surrounded by blueberry fields—but there was one man, Scott Ames, who was within earshot. He said that he heard a gunshot between 5:00AM and 6:00AM. He later told reporters with Fox Bangor, “I didn’t think anything of it. I went outside at whatever time it was. I saw some guy walking around the front of the [trailer]. I didn’t think anything of it. Next thing I know, I don’t know how many hours later, a state police trooper came knocking at my door.” He described the man he saw outside the trailer as “Tall. He looked tall. I can’t remember what color hair.”

At 1:34PM, a state detective and Deputy Campbell went to Bucksport to notify Brian’s girlfriend, who they learned had been in a relationship with him for “over 5 years.” She insisted, “There was no way Brian would kill himself.”

That same day, Brian’s much-younger half-sister, Trista, was notified, and her life was forever changed.

Early Investigation

Trista spoke to the Maine State Police immediately and frequently following Brian’s death. She told them all about Brian’s life. He had just moved in with Larry a couple of weeks before his death. It was Larry who had gotten him the job at G.M. Allen’s and got him a place to stay. She figured he was being paid under the table to work there. The white trailer where he was living was owned by G.M. Allen and referred to as the “storage trailer” because that’s what it was mostly used for—there wasn’t even permanent power run to the building, there was a generator outside that fed power to it. Seasonal workers sometimes stayed in the trailer.

Detectives asked her if there was any chance that Brian had wanted to take his own life, but she said, “No.”

Early on, some townspeople wondered if the bullet was meant for Larry rather than Brian. After all, they were both staying in the same trailer together, and they had similar body types. In the dark it would be easy to confuse the two brothers. Plus, Brian had only been living there for a couple of weeks. Even Larry himself told Trista, “Maybe the bullet was intended for me.” Trista asked if he was worried that the killer would return, but he said, “No,” because there were “cops crawling around everywhere.” It’s unclear why somebody would have wanted to kill Larry in the first place. But even the Maine State Police seemed to be exploring this angle, telling the Bangor Daily News, “That is one of the rumors we are following up.”

In fall of 2005, detectives searched Meadow Brook, a stream in Orland, and they sent a dive time into the nearby Narramissic River, both not far from the blueberry plant. They also drained an irrigation pond located behind G.M. Allen. According to the detective, none of those searches yielded any new evidence, but the fact that the Maine State Police were searching bodies of water suggests that the rifle found in the bedroom with Brian was not the gun that fired the fatal round.

There were 7 Maine State Police detectives working on the investigation full time in the early weeks and months. Three weeks after Brian’s death, they set up a roadblock on Route 15—the road that runs right in front of G.M. Allen. They spoke with about 360 drivers and handed out flyers with details about the information that they were looking for. They hoped that someone might have seen something between the hours of 7:00PM on July 14th and 7:00AM on July 15th. But Detective Sergeant Stephen Pickering later said, “We did not garner any information.”

Portrait of Brian Allen

Brian was nearly 20 years older than Trista. He was third in a lineup of 5 children, born in 1959. Larry is the oldest, 6 years Brian’s senior. Trista came later, after Brian’s mom and dad had split. Brian’s mother had Trista, her sixth and final child, in 1978.

Trista and Brian didn’t grow up together under the same roof, and they weren’t always close, but when Trista was a teenager, that all changed—their bond became unbreakable. They took care of one another when times were tough. When Trista was 13 and Brian was 32, Trista’s mom told her, “You’re going to stay with your brother.” He was going through a divorce, and he was devastated. He was constantly drunk, and wasn’t taking care of himself. Trista made sure that he ate and kept himself clean and didn’t drive drunk. When Trista was 17 and Brian was 36, he was going through another divorce. Trista stayed with him for weeks in the wake of the divorce and helped him grieve and helped him take care of himself. These were the first of many times that they would stay with one another during heartbreak or setbacks in life and help one another. It was a bond forged in trauma.

Brian was tall, wiry and lean—maybe 6FT 4IN. He looked like a cowboy at times. As a young man especially, Brian was handsome and charismatic. He would wear cut-off jean shorts, ribbed tank-tops, and he had a signature green vest with a lot of pockets. He wore plaid shirts and tight jeans and was always tan from being outside. His hair would go in cycles—when he was with someone it might be short and clean, but when he was a bachelor, he’d often let it grow out. He had kind eyes and an easy smile. He was easy to talk to and super friendly. But he wasn’t the center of attention—he was a quiet guy who worked odd jobs. He didn’t need to be around a lot of people. He didn’t care about technology—even when cell phones started to become ubiquitous, being reachable just wasn’t something the Brian worried about. He figured if someone wanted to get ahold of him, they’d find him.

Brian always had a dog. Sparky, Sofie, Osbourne... Always medium- to large-sized, and he always took good care of them. They were his daily companions. After his death, Trista took Osbourne and Larry took Sofie.

It’s unclear what happened to all of Brian’s guns. He was a collector. He had an Airstream camper that was chock-full of them. Trista recalled, “One of our special movies was Lethal Weapon. He had a lot of guns—guns everywhere. One day, we went into Walmart, and he bought me a pellet gun that looked like the 9mm [handgun] from Lethal Weapon, and another one for himself. We went out and target-practiced with them. I loved Mel Gibson—I could relate to the character.”

Trista: “For me, justice is about taking responsibility and hearing the truth. I want the truth. I want the person who took my brother's life to own it to say I killed Brian Allen, and it's been a lot of years and I still am very angry and I'm hurt, but. It's not about paying the price or seeing somebody go to jail.
I want you to look at me and say, I did this. I'm probably never gonna know why exactly, but I want you to own it. That's what I need to be okay with all of this. That’s what justice is to me.”

If you have information that could help solve Brian’s case, please contact Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit North at (207) 973-3750 or toll free 1-800-432-7381. You can also leave a tip online.

This portion of text has been adapted from the Murder, She Told podcast episode, The Unsolved Murder of Brian Allen. To hear Brian’s full story with Trista’s interview, find Murder, She Told on your favorite podcast platform.

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