The Disappearance of Starlette Vining (Maine)

Starlette Vining disappeared in 1998 and has never been found, yet 15 years after she was last seen in the small town of Presque Isle, Maine, a suspect was convicted of her murder. 

This is a wide-open look at how a cold missing persons case was successfully investigated and solved despite the fact that the victim’s remains were never recovered prior to trial, or ever. It’s a story about what it takes – and that it is fully possible – to bring a suspicious disappearance investigation to a close and get a violent, diabolical killer out of our communities, even when the only proof a murder occurred is the testimony of questionable witnesses, second-hand stories, and inconclusive physical evidence.

Rumors

It was July of 2012, the thick of summer in northern Maine, and rumors had started to circulate in the Aroostook County town of Presque Isle. Things were happening at 473 Main Street on the corner block that intersects with State Street. Yellow police tape was going up around the whole building and Maine State Police evidence response technicians funneled in and out of the doors, paper bags marked “evidence” clenched in their gloved hands.

Presque Isle is that kind of small community where everyone knows each other; where secrets and chatter circulated like clothes in the wash, around and around and around until thoroughly drenched with whispered opinions and speculations. But soon, after state police carried out their searches inside that commercial building in town, at least some of the rumors proved to be true.

At one time, the building housed several apartments and a few businesses, including a wine cellar and a pawnshop, The Star City Trading Post. It was all owned by a local resident, 75-year old George Jaime Sr.

From July 9 through July 11th, 2012, investigators turned over the basement and two apartments, searching for evidence in connection with a long-standing missing persons case. No one had seen or heard from Starlette Vining since 1998, but her family, friends, neighbors and co-workers – even just other townspeople without a personal connection to the woman – they all knew that Star was in a relationship with George Jaime right up until she disappeared. Rumor had it that George had something to do with why Star hadn’t shown up for work or sent letters to her children in nearly 14 years.

On July 12th, after samples had been taken and evidence was sent to the crime lab, Maine State Police in cooperation with the Presque Isle Police Department arrested George Jaime on charges of intentional or knowing murder in connection with the disappearance of Starlette Vining.

What had led to the arrest of this accused killer, and the story that would eventually feature prominently in the case against the suspect, was anything but a straight forward homicide case…Because there was no body. There was no evidence beyond witness testimony to conclusively say that the victim was in fact dead and not living somewhere else by choice. Star’s case would become one of just three homicide cases in the state of Maine as of 2012 in which investigators did not have the remains of the victim at the time of arrest, prosecution, or conviction of a suspect. 

To understand what made prosecutors so confident in bringing this case to trial, despite the fact that one of the biggest pieces of evidence was missing, we need to turn back the clock to 1998.

Starlette is Missing

Starlette Vining, known as Star for short, was described as a free spirit. She rarely planted roots for very long. That was just her way, but as of early summer 1998, Maine, and her aging mother in Presque Isle, had called Star home.

Star’s children, including her daughter who was just about to graduate high school that year, were all glad to know that their mother would be in one place where they could easily find her. Make no assumptions about Starlette’s love for her children based on her nomadic lifestyle; She loved them dearly and stayed in touch by letter, or around the holidays, with gifts mailed home. Star showed her love for her children in the best way she could.

While taking care of her mother at her home in Presque Isle, Star also got a job at the local supermarket. She was a dedicated employee; always on time, never missed a shift. That’s why it was so odd when one day in the fall of 1998, possibly sometime in October, one of the first people to notice that something might be wrong was Star’s supervisor at the grocery store. Star didn’t show up for her shift, and never even picked up a paycheck that was due to her. So, the supervisor called the man Star was known to be in a relationship with at the time: George Jaime.

The supervisor asked George about Star, but George said he didn’t know where she was and he hadn’t seen her in a while. However, he told the supervisor that she could come pick up Star’s work uniforms.

The last time Star’s daughter saw her mother was at her high school graduation. Star attended with George who gave her a ride down to the southern part of the state. After that, it had been months since Star’s daughter spoke with her mom, and she didn’t know exactly where to find her, but she looked up George’s number and got in contact with him. When they spoke, George explained that Star was no longer staying with him in Presque Isle. According to George, Star left with a group of broccoli pickers, apparently stepping back into her wandering ways.

Sometime later, George was at the Presque Isle police department on an unrelated matter. There was some talk in town by then that Star wasn’t around, and an officer remembered that there’d been at least one documented violent incident between George and Star in the past, so he asked George how she was doing. George was dismissive and said he didn’t know and that he was done with her. She’d gone to California, he told the officer.

For the next eight years, Star’s family waited to hear from her. At the beginning, it was not altogether unusual for her to drop out of contact, but the more months that stacked up in between, the greater their concern became. Star always sent letters. The cadence was unpredictable, but the updates always came, nonetheless. 

When Star’s mother passed away in 2004, Star would have been the next of kin and heir to her mother’s estate, which primarily consisted of her home in Presque Isle. The trouble was that the probate process couldn’t proceed because Star couldn’t be located. Star’s son tried to step in and applied for an informal appointment as his maternal grandmother’s personal representative, but the following year, that application was declined because Star had priority.

Star’s children tried to find her, but there was no trace of her beyond Presque Isle that they could find. Frustrated, worried, at a total loss, one of Star’s sons reported her missing to Presque Isle police in October of 2006.

Around the same time the missing persons report was filed, Presque Isle PD received a tip about what may have happened to Starlette; that she was believed to be deceased and that someone caused her death. That kind of information necessitated a call to Maine State Police.