The Murder of Valerie Tieman (Maine)

Valerie is Missing

For the mother and father of 34-year old Valerie Joy Tieman, the worry started with the kind of silence only a parent knows how to hear. 

Valerie was living in Maine with her husband of two years, Luc Tieman, hundreds of miles from them. Distance was part of their normal, but silence was not, and it had been too long since they’d heard from her. So on August 27th, 2016, Valerie’s mother Sarajean Harmon reached out to her son-in-law to check in.

Luc made it sound like there wasn’t anything urgent to worry about. According to Judy Harrison’s reporting for the Bangor Daily News, Luc told Sarajean that he and Valerie were, “good. Thank you.” He also said that he loved Valerie so much.

The last time Sarajean heard Valerie’s voice was more than two weeks earlier, on August 10th. It was Sarajean’s birthday, and Valerie had called to wish her a happy one. Before they hung up, Valerie told her mom, “I love you.” 

Sarajean and Valerie’s father Allen Harmon heard from Valerie again on August 18th, this time through Facebook Messenger. Then, on August 25th, Sarajean tried calling Valerie to ask if she had remembered to call her brother for his birthday. Valerie didn’t answer, and she didn’t respond to Facebook messages either.

One missed call could have been nothing. A Facebook message could go unread. But Valerie stayed connected to her family by phone and online messages, sometimes just to say hello, so this silence stood out. But Luc said he and Valerie were good, so for a little while longer, Sarajean and Allen waited.

By September 8th, they still had not heard from their daughter. So that day, they called Luc’s father, trying to figure out what anyone in Maine might know. That’s when they learned something they say no one had bothered to tell them: Valerie was missing.

According to Sarajean and Allen’s recollections later featured in the series Raw Terror, Luc’s father said it had been a couple of weeks since anyone had seen Valerie, and they didn’t know where she was. Then, in the same conversation, he asked what he should do with Valerie’s belongings. Her things were all bagged up in garbage bags, he said.

For Valerie’s parents, that was a jarring thing to hear all at once. Their daughter was missing. Her husband’s family apparently knew she was missing. Her belongings were already packed up. And yet only days earlier, Luc had told Sarajean that he and Valerie were “good.”

Sarajean and Allen contacted Luc and asked why he hadn’t told them Valerie was missing. Luc said he had been waiting for Valerie to contact them herself, because he still would never “bad mouth her.” He eventually disclosed to his in-laws that Valerie had left him for someone else, and he hadn’t seen her for some time.

That same day, September 8th, a Facebook page that appears to belong to Luc Tieman posted a short message: “Needing prayers from those who do pray, thank you.” The next day, September 9th, Valerie’s parents contacted the Fairfield Police Department and officially reported their daughter missing.

Sarajean and Allen drove north from South Carolina to Maine soon after, toward the home of Luc’s mother, Laurelle Tieman, in Fairfield. Luc and Valerie had been staying there earlier that summer when times got tough and they couldn’t keep their own apartment. But when Valerie’s parents arrived, Laurelle told them Luc and Valerie didn’t live there anymore.

According to Valerie’s parents’ account in Raw Terror, Laurelle later called them after the missing person report was made and said she had spoken to Valerie herself, and Valerie was definitely alive. But that didn’t bring Sarajean and Allen any comfort. If anything, it raised another alarm, because if Valerie was alive, and if she was able to contact Luc’s mother, then why hadn’t she called her own parents? Why hadn’t she answered her mother’s messages? Why hadn’t she said, in her own voice, that she was okay?

At that point, no one was saying anything about Valerie possibly being dead. If Luc was to be believed, Valerie had run off somewhere with someone else. But for the people who knew Valerie best, that explanation was getting harder to believe.

About Valerie Tieman

Before she was Valerie Tieman, she was Valerie Joy Harmon. Her father tells the story of the day she was born in a public Facebook post. It was freezing rain and snowing outside and her parents had no choice but to head out into the treacherous weather at 4 o’clock in the morning to get to the hospital. Years later, Valerie’s father wrote about that day, saying, “Little did we know that this dramatic entrance into this world was setting the stage for so many acts of love and kindness, humor…”

Valerie grew up with that kind of presence. She was warm, funny, deeply faithful, and the kind of person people remembered not because she demanded attention, but because she made people feel cared for. Her friend Emily Fournier told the Kennebec Journal’s Amy Calder that Valerie showed up for anyone who needed her. She described Valerie as “sweet as sugar,” with good southern values.

Valerie had been married once before, but Valerie told her brothers it was a loveless marriage and she wanted out. After 10 years, she got a divorce and poured herself into the things that made her feel like herself again. She loved theatre. She was a talented hairstylist and cosmetologist.

She soon started telling her family about a new man in her life named Luc Tieman. From what her family could see, Valerie seemed truly happy.

When Valerie and Luc first started dating, he was in the military, so their relationship existed largely through Skype calls. According to one of Valerie’s friends, those calls sometimes turned into little concerts. Valerie would sing to Luc, including the song that had come to define their long-distance relationship: “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” from The Phantom of the Opera.

Valerie still sang that song at Thursday night karaoke, dedicating it to Luc. Her friends said she had a beautiful singing voice.

Valerie and Luc were married on June 8th, 2014. Over the next couple of years, they lived between Maine and South Carolina, and by the summer of 2016, they had moved into Luc’s parents’ home in Fairfield.

She grew friendships in Maine. She found creative outlets. She was involved with the Recycled Shakespeare Company, and in the summer of 2016, she had recently been cast as the lead in an upcoming show and was supposed to pick up her script ahead of rehearsals, but she never came to get it. When rehearsals began, Valerie didn’t show up for those, either.

Valerie had a role waiting for her, friends expecting to see her, and family still waiting to hear from her. When the messages stopped, it didn’t feel like distance. It felt wrong.

Early Investigation

On September 12th, Luc Tieman called Fairfield police himself. He heard they were looking for him after Valerie’s parents reported her missing.

Luc told police that he had last seen his wife at the Walmart in Skowhegan on or about August 30th. According to Luc, Valerie had stayed behind in their truck while he went inside the store but when he came back out, she was gone.

Within 24 hours, Fairfield Police called in Maine State Police. Detective Hugh Landry was assigned to Valerie’s missing persons case that day.) After a briefing by the local PD, Detective Landry went to the Skowhegan Walmart, the place Luc said he last saw Valerie. In the parking lot, Landry spotted Luc’s red Chevy Silverado, and Luc was sitting inside.

Detective Landry knew that Luc had a suspended driver’s license so he stopped the truck and told Luc he was there because of the missing persons investigation into Valerie. He said he planned to review the store’s security footage, ostensibly to see where Valerie went after leaving the truck.

Luc told the detective he was there for the same reason; to find Valerie. He offered to show Detective Landry the area where they had parked and the angle investigators should check on the security cameras.

Detective Landry told Luc he wasn’t concerned about his suspended license, and asked if Luc would be willing to come with him to the State Police barracks for a more detailed interview and Luc agreed.

During that first interview, Luc walked Detective Landry through his and Valerie’s movements before she disappeared. According to Luc, his sister was supposed to visit his parents’ home, where he and Valerie had been living. Luc said Valerie didn’t get along with his sister, so he and Valerie decided they would stay with a friend in Norridgewock for two or three days while the sister was in town.

But during that stay, Luc said, Valerie told him she was going to take the truck and leave him.

Luc said he told Valerie not to leave and he would take her to Walmart to get food. He said they pulled into the parking lot around dusk, near the back of the store. Valerie didn’t want to go inside, but she still wanted food, so Luc took the keys from the truck before going inside to prevent her from driving off without him.

When he came back out, according to Luc, Valerie was gone, but she had left behind almost all of her belongings, so Luc assumed that meant she planned to come back. He said he called and texted Valerie afterward, trying to find out where she had gone and assuring her he would take her back. But he hadn’t seen her since.

Detective Landry asked about their relationship and Luc explained that he and Valerie never argued nor had there ever been any physical fights…But there was one part of the story Luc did not seem eager to share. He didn’t want to tell police who he and Valerie had supposedly stayed with in Norridgewock while his sister was in town. Eventually, though, he agreed to show investigators where the house was.

Luc led Detective Landry and another detective to some railroad tracks. He had the detectives park their vehicles and walk with him along the tracks, under a railroad trestle, until they reached a certain point on Main Street. There, Luc pointed out the house where he said he and Valerie had stayed just before she disappeared.

But the more detectives tried to anchor Luc’s story to evidence, the less it held.

Valerie Tieman’s story continues on Dark Downeast. Press play to hear the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.