The Unsolved Murder of Scott Sampson: Portland, Maine, 1990 — Murder, She Told: Maine & New England True Crime

A murder at Pine Street Variety in Portland, ME

Officer Mayo looked at the man who was lying face-down on a familiar sidewalk—a sidewalk that was on his beat in Portland. He had gotten a brief description from dispatch. A woman who lived a couple of blocks away had called it in to the police. The man he was looking at did not appear to be unhoused—he was neatly dressed, physically fit, and looked trim. The man couldn’t sleep there, so Officer Mayo issued some verbal commands, trying to rouse him, but he made no reply. It was a cold night—the air temperature was 23 degrees, and the wind was blowing more than 20 miles per hour bringing the wind chill to just 2 degrees.

After waiting long enough, he reached down to the man’s wrist to check his vitals. He found no pulse. At 2:10AM, in the wee hours of a Wednesday morning in November of 1990, Scott Sampson was pronounced dead. He had been stabbed.

The location where Scott had died is in the heart of the West End neighborhood of Portland. He died on Pine Street, just in front of a business appropriately named “Pine Street Variety.” This location is merely 2 blocks from Congress Street, which is one of the busiest streets in Portland. Pine Street Variety was open until late at night—perhaps 11:00PM or midnight—and the manager who had locked up for the night had seen Scott lying on the sidewalk when he left, which means that Scott had been lying there for hours prior to arrival of police.

This was Tuesday evening, November 13th, 1990, in the late hours of the night. impossible to say how many, but easily dozens of people could have seen Scott Sampson lying on the sidewalk, likely already dead. And none of those people rendered aid—aid that perhaps could have saved his life.

About Scott Sampson

Scott was quite a character and was loved by many.

At the time of his death, he was 26 years old and had two young sons with their mother, Lisa, with whom he was no longer in a romantic relationship. He was living with his mother, Millie, in her home in Springvale, Maine, a small town just outside of Sanford, Maine. Scott was his mother’s right-hand man—being very mechanically inclined, he would help her with things around the house and help take care of her. Millie was 57 years old at the time of Scott’s death, and Scott, at 26, was still the baby of the family—the youngest of her five children. Scott would do odd jobs around the Sanford/Springvale area, but he would go frequently into Portland.

We spoke to his oldest sister, Sandra, for this episode, and she said that the last time she had seen Scott alive was on the night of Halloween, 2 weeks prior to his death, and there was alcohol involved, and he was getting into it with his brother. She had to intervene to get them to settle down.

But Scott was working on getting sober. He was going to AA meetings. He, with the support of his sister, entered two in-patient rehab programs at Mercy Hospital. The second one of which was in March of 1990. He completed the program successfully and got subsidized housing at a recovery facility called Friendship House Shelter in Portland.

At his best he was sensitive and loving. He was a terrific cook—he had gone to Penobscot Job Corps in Bangor and had a culinary focus. He was great with kids, both his two sons, as well as his nephew, Sandra’s son, Ryan. He was an excellent BMX biker and great on roller skates.

He had a sensitive side that he shared particularly with his mother and his sister. Sandra told us that “He could be standing there doing the dishes, and he would [just] turn around and say, ‘I love you.’ He had a jovial personality. He’d just walk in the door and give you a hug and a kiss.” His mom, Millie, said, “In his own way, he was a very fine boy.”

He cared deeply about his two sons. He and their mom, Lisa, had split, and she had moved to the northern tip of the state, just on the border with Canada, in the town of Van Buren, taking the two boys with her. But he remained present in their lives, even hitchhiking the 350 miles from Sanford to Van Buren to see them.

Scott had a criminal history—he had been arrested more than 20 times in total—primarily for assault, DWIs, and theft. But he never served much time in jail, just short stints—a night here or a week there—never months or years. No individual incident was too serious, but taken in aggregate, it was alarming. It showed that when he was drinking, he could become defiant and aggressive. And it was having a serious impact on his life. And as much as his mother relied on Scott, he relied on her, too—she helped support him, driving him where he needed to go, giving him a place to live, and providing financial assistance.

It must have been devastating for Millie to lay her son to rest. And it all happened so quickly.

The night of Scott’s murder

On Tuesday night, Scott was at 85 Falmouth Street, Portland, Maine, which was Tara’s apartment, the woman he was seeing. The distance between Tara’s apartment and the location where Scott was found at 64 Pine Street is 1.2 miles. He traveled that distance by bike—he had borrowed Tara’s brother’s black off-road bicycle. He and Tara had gotten into an argument that evening, and it was Scott’s intention to return home to Springvale.

From our discussions with Sandra, Scott first went to 7-11, where he bought and ate two hot dogs. He ate them outside of the store, within eyesight of the manager of 7-11. The 7-11 manager said that they saw him, through the store’s front windows, speaking with someone. They got the impression that he knew the individual with whom he was speaking.

Around this same time, Portland PD had officers out cruising the neighborhood, patrolling their beats. A cop saw Scott “tussling” with a man on the sidewalk. The cop later recalled that Scott had his bike with him. This was the last known sighting of Scott alive. The cop later did another round and saw Scott lying on the sidewalk, and according to Lisa, “assumed he was drunk.” He did not stop to check on him.

Although we have not been able to determine the precise time, the manager of Pine Street Variety closed up the shop around midnight, and later told police that he recalled seeing Scott’s body on the sidewalk just outside of the store. He, too, did not stop or call for help.

And it wasn’t until the woman who lived a couple of blocks away called police at 1:53AM that anybody took an interest in Scott Sampson.

Scott Sampson was a muscular, physically-fit man of 26 years old, 179 pounds, and approximately 5 feet 9 inches tall. He was stabbed only once, and the knife only penetrated his body 2-2.5”. The odds that this single wound would rapidly kill Scott seems extremely unlikely. The person who stabbed Scott probably didn’t even realize how seriously he was wounded. It also seems to suggest that, whoever did this, probably didn’t realize that they had killed Scott until much later—perhaps when they saw him lying dead on the sidewalk—or even later, when it was reported on the news.

Theories, investigation

The Portland PD, from the very beginning, said that Scott’s death was being treated as a homicide.

The attorney general’s office and the Portland PD for whatever reason decided to withhold the cause of death, a decision that they have clung to for the last 35 years. To this day, they have not confirmed that Scott Sampson was stabbed. Initially they said that the knowledge that it was a stabbing was a “integral piece of evidence,” that would give police an edge when interviewing suspects.

Though the police have not released Scott’s cause of death, the family decided to release it to the media and it’s been previously reported prior to this episode.

As Scott’s sons grew up, they started talking to the press about their father’s death. They started to realize what they had lost.

In 2015, Scott’s son, Kyle Sampson, visited 64 Pine Street, handing out hand-written flyers pleading for help in his father’s case.

Shawn believes that “time is of the essence. This person (Scott’s killer) is in their 60s or 70s.” Time is running out. He told us, “I always see it in my head playing out as a deathbed confession. I’m not even that interested in justice—I just want to know who and why.”

If you have information on the murder of Scott Sampson, you can call the Portland Police anonymous crime tip line at 207-874-8584. You may also text keyword “PPDME” and a message to 847411 (TIP411).

Continue Scott’s story: Listen to the podcast episode. This text has been adapted from the Murder, She Told podcast episode, The Unsolved Murder of Scott Sampson. To hear Scott’s full story for free, find Murder, She Told on your favorite podcast platform or listen on the player at the top of the page.

Click here to support Murder, She Told.

Connect with Murder, She Told on:

Instagram: @murdershetoldpodcast

Facebook: /mstpodcast

TikTok: @murdershetold

Lisa, Scott Sampson, Shawn Sampson, left to right (Sandra Hill shared with MST)

Crime scene, 64 Pine St, Portland, ME (Fox 23)

Crime scene, 64 Pine St, Portland, ME (WGME)

64 Pine St, Portland, ME, (Google Earth)

Shawn Sampson, Kyle Sampson, and family (Fox 23)

Sources For This Episode

Newspaper articles

Various articles from Bangor Daily News, Evening Express, Journal Tribune, Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel, Portland Forecaster, Portland Press Herald, and the Sun Journal, here.

Written by various authors including Alan Clendenning, David Harry, Linda Madsen, Beth Murphy, and Tom Berg.

Online written sources

'After 25 years, family, police still seek clues in unsovled Portland homicide' (Portland Press Herald), 11/10/2015, by David Harry

'ME - Scott Sampson, 26, Portland, 13 November 1990' (Websleuths), 11/12/2015, by JusticeWillBeServed

'Son seeks answers in fathers decades-old murder' (WGME), 2/28/2016

'Scott A Sampson' (Find A Grave), 1/25/2018, by Bonparrain

'Maine family hopes for answers nearly 30 years after father of 2 killed' (WMTW), 11/13/2019, by Joe Glauber

'Scott Sampson' (Portland Maine), 11/13/2022

'It's been more than 30 years since his killing, but the case has yet to be solved' (News Center Maine), 11/15/2022, by Chris Costa

'Police say 26-year-old Scott Sampson was killed outside...' (Facebook), 11/15/2022, by News Center Maine

'Son looks for clues in father's killing 25 years later' (WMTW), 11/13/2023, by Jim Keithley

'Today is 33 Years Since the unsolved murder of Scott Sampson in Portland, Maine' (Reddit), 11/13/2023, by u/truucrime