The Victims of the River Spree Killer (Maine)
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This is the case of the Sunday River Spree Killer. It's one of those baffling cases that I can't believe more people don't know about. This is the story of a true monster who stole the lives of four innocent humans when he committed one of the most grisly multiple murders in Maine's history. And it all happened just minutes from a well-known and beloved winter destination in New England.

I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East. Julie and Selby Billard were in search of a fresh start. The mother and daughter pair set off for the East Coast from San Francisco, California, to the ski town of Newry, Maine, in early 2004, with two kids and a few pets in tow. In 2004, Selby was the 28-year-old mother of two young children, 9-year-old Layla Camille and 7-year-old Elliot Maxwell.

She was also a widow. Her husband died tragically in a car accident in California, and she was ready to start fresh, away from the reminders of their painful loss.

Selby had spent her career selling fashionable eyewear at optician offices, and when she made it to Maine, she pivoted her sales career into real estate. The new path was exactly what she needed, and soon after passing the exam, Selby hung her real estate license at Apple Tree Realty office in Bethel, Maine. Selby's mother, Julie, she was 63 years old in 2004, and she too was ready for a fresh start alongside her daughter and two grandchildren. They

They called her Dami, which is a grandma name I've never heard before, but I really love it. Dami loved her grandchildren, and she loved antiquing and traveling and animals. She loved her three dogs, Rosie, Buster, and Lolly. Before packing up her world and moving east, Julie ran the Church Street Bed and Breakfast in San Francisco.

For sure, the scenery would be different in the snowy western Maine mountains compared to the steep and bustling city life she had known, but Julie was eager to continue her life and career serving guests at her new establishment, the Black Bear Bed and Breakfast off Sunday River Road, just two miles away from the Sunday River Ski Resort. I pulled the Black Bear Bed and Breakfast website on the Wayback Machine, and it's everything you'd expect from an early 2000s website.

There's Comic Sans font and a GIF of bear paw prints that follows your mouse around as you float over each menu item. It's just everything you can imagine. On June 10, 2004, a banner at the top of the page announced that the inn was closed and the former owners had listed it for sale.

By July 26th of the same year, the banner was replaced with green text reading, The Black Bear has been sold and is now open for business for reservations called Julie Bullard. The Black Bear Bed and Breakfast was a six-bedroom farmhouse converted to suit the needs of modern guests while maintaining the classic New England charm with its white clappered siding, maroon shutters, and a red metal roof.

The website read, The Black Bear B&B welcomes guests who wish to experience the comfort and personal attention of a small, friendly inn. It was the perfect new start for Julie Ballard. So Julie and Selby settled into this new pace of life in Maine. Selby learned the ropes in her new real estate career and got along well with her boss and co-workers. She got to know another agent in the office, a woman named Cynthia Beetson.

Although Cynthia was a little older than Selby, 40 years old when they met in 2004, they had their children and careers in common. The two were fast friends and soon they were inseparable. Where Selby went, so did Cynthia. Cynthia became Selby and Julie's support and extended family in their new home state.

For two years, Julie ran the inn, bringing all her past experience to the table in hopes of building a thriving business. Despite all of that, business wasn't easy. By New Year's in 2006, the vision of a thriving mountain bed and breakfast was fading. Vacationland might be the moniker stamped on Maine State license plates, but the hospitality industry is tough here.

The Black Bear just wasn't turning into what Julie Bullard envisioned. Finances were tight, and by February of 2006, Julie decided to sell the inn. A for-sale sign was pounded into the earth at the end of the gravel driveway, and the Black Bear website had a new banner in place reading, Currently closed due to change of ownership.

It's unclear if Julie already had a buyer at the time, but Julie was ready to move on from the B&B industry and move in with her other daughter and her children at their new home in Brooklyn, New York. Though the bed and breakfast was still in transition, Julie still had bills to pay. She continued to extend her hospitality and welcome to longer-term boarders at the six-bedroom inn while the business was on the market, just to make ends meet.

Among those long-term boarders was 50-year-old James Whitehurst. He moved to Maine from Arkansas and made his living as a handyman. James was also called Jimmy by his family, who still lived back in Arkansas. He was a free spirit, and he loved everything the western Maine mountains had to offer. Snowmobiling, four-wheeling, motorcycling, if it had wheels and a motor, and could power his adventures in the great outdoors, Jimmy Whitehurst loved it.

He suffered through polio as a child, and he walked with a limp as a result, and he also spoke loudly as he was hard of hearing. When he moved into the Black Bear Bed and Breakfast, he had been working to regain visitation with his children. The other long-term tenant, living in one of the six bedrooms during the summer of 2006, was 30-year-old Christian Charles Nielsen. Christian grew up in Oxford County and lived in Farmington, Maine for several years while he was in and out of college.

When he moved to the Black Bear B&B, Christian was a cook at the Sudbury Inn in Bethel, another ski town just a five-mile drive away. He was a capable cook, according to his boss, and a quiet, soft-spoken man. Christian had made a few missteps in his past. An OUI, a suspended license, traffic violations. But by all accounts, it seemed Christian was ready to put those days of trouble behind him.

He proudly announced to his Sudbury Inn co-workers one day in 2005 that he was hanging up his drinking habit and he had his eyes set on the military. And so it was tenants Jimmy Whitehurst and Christian Nielsen living under the roof of their landlady Julie Ballard at the start of Labor Day weekend in September 2006. Labor Day weekend has always been the unofficial end of summer in the Northeast, welcoming tourists for one last hurrah on their escape to vacation land.

In years past, Julie might have been preparing the inn for her long weekend guests, but with the business closed and the ongoing search for new owners, no one was due to check in for that holiday weekend. On Friday, September 1st, 2006, Christian invited the other B&B long-term tenant, James Whitehurst, on a fishing trip.

Christian told him that he had a cabin in Upton, right on the water, not far from Newry, maybe 20 or 30 miles away, right on the New Hampshire border. James loved the outdoors, that was no secret, and so it wasn't a hard sell. The pair packed up some sandwiches and set off in Christian's car towards the supposed fishing camp.

They made it to Upton, Maine, and turned off onto Brown Company Road, a long dirt path of road leading into Sea Surplus Township, one of the many uninhabited territories that dot the most rural wooded areas of the state of Maine. Christian kept driving deeper and deeper into the woods.

The dirt road crunched under his tires, creeping further into the thick pine tree forest until finally he slowed to a stop in a small clearing and cut the engine. Christian told Jimmy it was a good spot for lunch. We don't know if Jimmy was nervous or if he blindly trusted the man who he shared a temporary home with.

We don't know if he asked how much further or are we there yet as the trees and brush closed in on the vehicle. We don't know if he even enjoyed the first few bites of his sandwich before Christian Nielsen pulled a .38 caliber revolver from the car and shot James Whitehurst once in the head and twice more in his body.

It was unusual, Julie Bullard might have thought, that James Whitehouse didn't make it back to the B&B that afternoon. And maybe her casual awareness mounted into considerable concern when Christian returned home apparently from his shift at work, when Julie knew the pair had gone fishing together. Maybe Julie started asking about James, questioning Christian about the trip, wondering where her other tenant had gone off to.

Or maybe she didn't even have a chance to check up on James or mutter a single question to Christian, because on Saturday, September 2nd, Christian Nielsen claimed Julie Ballard as his second victim, again pulling the same revolver and ending her life in a rain of gunfire.

Every source I've encountered points to this killing, Julie Bullard's murder, as Christian's way of covering up the first murder of James. One brutal, cold-blooded murder spiraling into the next. Christian dragged Julie's lifeless body out behind the bed and breakfast and haphazardly covered her with a tarp. The next day, Sunday, September 3rd, 2006, he returned to work once again as if nothing ever happened.

On the morning of Labor Day in 2006, Christian Charles Nielsen awoke to the unexpected noise of tires on gravel in the driveway of the Black Bear Bed and Breakfast. From his window, he could see Julie's daughter Selby and her best friend Cynthia piling out of their car and making for the front door of the Bed and Breakfast. You see, Selby had been trying to reach her mother over that Labor Day weekend. Endless phone calls went unanswered, and that wasn't like her mother.

Selby always had a reasonable concern about her mother on any given day. Julie had asthma that resulted in severe coughing fits, and Selby worried that if she wasn't answering her phone, maybe she was in some sort of medical distress. Now, Selby had broken her leg earlier that summer, and she relied on her best friend Cynthia for transportation, so the pair rode out to the Black Bear together to check in on Julie.

We can only imagine what the exchange might have been between Cynthia and Selby and Christian when the pair arrived on the doorstep asking about Julie. The only thing we know for sure is that Christian's killing spree continued when he shot and killed Selby and Cynthia in the same way he took the lives of James and Julie earlier in the weekend.

Four innocent lives stolen in four days with one man to blame for them all. That afternoon of Labor Day 2006, Christian called his father Charles. Now I can only imagine what mundane niceties were exchanged in that call or how Christian tried to play off a casual and collected tone as he told his dad that he was running the inn while Julie was away in California.

Christian actually invited his dad and his stepmother to come down to the inn, but as his parents pulled up to the red-roofed house and made their way to the door, their eyes were drawn to something wet and red on the freshly mowed grass. Christian's killing spree began to unravel in the presence of his father, and soon the horrific details came spilling out.

Charles walked along the trail of blood and discovered the lifeless and mutilated bodies of Cynthia and Selby. Christian's father sat with him as his stepmother called the police. According to court documents, Trooper Dan Hanson responded to the call at 5.30 p.m. on Monday, September 4th. When he arrived at the scene, Trooper Hanson asked Christian Nielsen as he sat on the bench with his father what happened at the Black Bear Inn. Christian responded plainly, quote,

At that point, Trooper Hansen read Christian his Miranda rights, cuffed him and put him in the police cruiser, and then turned on his cruiser camera before calling for support and walking the property. While Christian sat in the back of the cruiser, his dad leaned in and asked him if he thought he should wait for counsel before saying anything else.

and Christian agreed that it was probably a good idea. So Charles shoved off the car to speak again with Trooper Hansen, who asked Charles to lead him to the bodies he'd discovered. The pair walked cautiously to the back of the inn following that trail of blood the whole way to a clearing in the brush where two human bodies lay, dismembered, alongside the bodies of Julie's dogs.

I don't need to tell you that that scene was gruesome. It was tragic, and it was among the single most horrible things Trooper Hansen probably ever had to witness in his law enforcement career. It was the work of a monster. Trooper Hansen returned to his cruiser and said to Christian, quote, I know you invoked your rights and you want to speak to counsel, but I need to ask this question. Is there any chance there is anyone alive here?

I don't want to leave someone out there bleeding, end quote. But Christian replied that they were all dead. Christian's father spoke with police as they awaited the arrival of more detectives. Christian had told his father that he only wanted to tell his story once, and so Trooper Hansen stopped asking questions. But Charles Nielsen repeated to police what he learned from his son before they had even arrived at the scene.

His son told him there were four victims, three at the inn, two they'd already found, and one deep in the woods of Upton. Christian told his father where on the property they'd find the third body, and Charles directed Trooper Hansen to Julie Bullard. When game warden Norm Lewis arrived on the scene without even asking, Christian told Lewis where they'd find the fourth victim of his days-long killing spree.

Later that night, investigators located the burned remains of James Whitehurst. The investigation later revealed that in addition to shooting and killing his first victim in cold blood, Christian dismembered and burned his body in a makeshift fire pit in the woods, leaving behind remains that were only identifiable by a forensic anthropologist.

The bodies of Julie, Selby, and Cynthia had all been mutilated with a chainsaw and an axe, among other weapons, and their fingers had been removed, it's assumed, so Christian could steal their rings. Christian was later questioned in a two-hour-long recorded interview. And, according to the Bangor Daily News, police gave him a meal and a change of clothes before attempting to uncover what led Christian to killing those four people.

He's heard saying during the interrogation, quote, I'll tell you exactly what happened, end quote. The list of disturbing details surrounding this case is long, but among the most unsettling is the apparent smirk Christian wore on his face as he sat through his court hearing and his attorneys entered a not guilty plea for the murder of James Whitehurst, Selby Ballard, Julie Ballard, and Cynthia Beetson.

His defense attorney, however, told Boston.com that, quote, I can assure you he's not amused. He's not been speaking to me in a light banter, end quote. Meanwhile, while held at the Oxford County Jail, Christian attacked another inmate. According to the Rutland Daily Herald, just one week after he violently killed his first victim, Christian grabbed a mop ringer while he and another man were cleaning and swung it at the back of his head.

Christian tried to follow the man back into his room but slipped and fell on the wet floor. After the assault, Christian had to be moved to Cumberland County Jail in Portland where he could be separated from other prisoners. His defense team had an uphill battle to present this confessed killer's case. He had already told police what he did and how he did it, but Nielsen's lawyers tried to get his early confession and the evidence it led to suppressed in court.

According to court documents, his defense team attempted to make the case that Christian was unfairly questioned after asking for an attorney in that squad car, and that the officer may not have correctly read him his Miranda rights, among other claims. But that strategy was unsuccessful. His confession and the evidence remained.

As the investigation continued, the Attorney General's office pursued a psychiatric evaluation of Christian to determine his mental state, both as he prepared to stand trial and when he carried out the murders. David Sharp for the Associated Press reported that testimony by psychologists at Nielsen's competency hearing revealed that he did face mental health challenges, among them schizoid personality disorder and Asperger's syndrome.

However, they stopped short of declaring him legally insane. His mental disability did not make him incompetent, though he did struggle to display emotions such as remorse, and he struggled to engage with his lawyers as they prepared his defense.

In May 2007, Christian's attorney changed his plea from not guilty to not criminally responsible. This plea change came after a month-long hunger strike, which led to Christian's 55-pound weight loss. That's over a third of his body weight. Christian's defense team started to get more and more frustrated with his behavior.

This change of plea was also part of their angle to defend him while he remained almost disinterested and detached from the entire ordeal. Pursuing an insanity defense would mean, in the simplest of terms, that he didn't have the skills to participate in his own defense. However, in September 2007, Justice Robert Crowley determined that Christian Nielsen was competent to stand trial.

The judge is quoted by the Associated Press, saying, quote, While it is certainly unfair to subject a defendant to trial when he lacks the capacity to take part in his own defense, it is not unfair to subject him to trial when he simply chooses not to take part. End quote.

The single biggest question in this case is why? Why kill James Whitehurst, beginning an outrageous spiral of violent, horrendous murders, ending the lives of three more humans just to cover up the first? What was the motive there?

Old co-workers speculated that it was the result of a past-due rent or some sort of conflict between him and Julie. It's possible James might have been involved in helping Julie evict Christian, making him a target as well. But as much as we might want to grasp at the why and some sort of inciting event that spurred one of the worst homicide cases in Maine's history, the truth is often darker than any scenario we could render ourselves.

The motive, by Christian's own admission, was both simple and completely horrifying. According to a sentencing memorandum obtained by the Associated Press, Nielsen said that murdering someone was all he had really thought about since he was 26 years old. Also revealed in that memorandum was that after the murders, Christian planned to take over the bed and breakfast and run it himself.

As far as James Whitehurst becoming his first victim, the only thing Christian Nielsen ever said was that James was objectionable.

Greg McCrary, a criminology consultant, told the Rutland Daily Herald, quote, He wasn't a perfectly normal person who got up one day and did this. He may have been able to keep secret to some extent some of his violent fantasies and proclivities to do this. Generally, these things are thought out and fantasized before they are carried out, end quote. On October 6, 2007, Christian changed his plea once more, finally, to guilty.

This change in plea relieved the Bullhard, Whitehurst, and Beetson families from withstanding a grueling trial and all of the testimony. On October 18, 2007, Christian was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences for the murder and dismembering of four people on Labor Day weekend in 2006. In Maine, a life sentence means no chance of parole.

Christian Charles Nielsen will stay behind bars for the remainder of his days. At the sentencing, Justice Robert Crowley stated, quote, When all is said and done, Christian Nielsen has committed four of the worst criminal acts in recent Maine history, end quote. In a heart-shattering yet poignant letter written by Elliott, Selby's 10-year-old son, he said, quote,

Christian Nielsen's victims extend beyond the four he murdered that weekend. Selby's two children lost their mother so soon after losing their father in a car accident.

James Whitehurst's son, just 16 years old when his father was murdered and his body was burned, he ventured into the woods to the very spot his father took his final breaths to memorialize his late dad with a marble marker and a birdhouse. Cynthia's husband and young daughter remembered her as an outgoing and loving person who lit up a room when she entered. She had a remarkable energy, they said, and a love of life, and she was always willing to lend a helping hand.

Thank you for tuning in to Dark Down East. And thank you to my sources for this episode. Among them...

All of my sources for this episode and others are listed at darkdowneast.com so you can dig in and learn more.

Thank you for supporting this show and allowing me to do what I do. I'm honored to use this platform for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers in cold missing persons and murder cases. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East.