Carny Nabbed in Murder Case Interference Investigation

A man who was being sought for months for allegedly interfering with the investigation into a “grisly” murder in Maine in April was found in Beverly on Thursday working as a carnival worker.

Sebastian Moody-Dabney, 22, of Lewiston, Maine had been on the lam since his indictment by an Androscoggin County grand jury in May charging him with hindering apprehension and prosecution. The charges stem from the April 5 murder of Romeo Parent, who investigators said was stabbed with a screwdriver and strangled with wire.

Moody-Dabney is not alleged to have committed murder, but instead alleged to have searched a witness – who was a friend common to the victim and suspects – and when he found the business card of a Maine State Police detective in the witness’ pocket had ripped it up and asked the friend about what he had told police, according to an account of the police report by the Lewiston-Auburn Sun Journal newspaper.

On Thursday in Beverly, Moody-Dabney’s name was on an “employee manifest” that management for Cushing Amusements handed over to Beverly police at their request, said Beverly Police Lt. Mike Devlin. The company was setting up for a fundraising carnival sponsored be the Beverly Education Foundation at Beverly High School that started on Thursday evening. It runs through Sunday.

Sgt. Russ Rollins and Officer Ed Hathon were checking each employee through the National Crime Information Center database when they got a hit on Moody-Dabney, Devlin said. That’s when he was arrested.

Police do similar checks on door-to-door salesmen before they are granted a city permit and allowed out on the street, Devlin said.

The charge in Maine is a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison, according to reporter Chris Williams of the Lewiston Sun-Journal, a newspaper that has extensively covered the murder.

Parent was allegedly murdered by Michael McNaughton, 23, of Lewiston and Nathan Morton, 23, of Greene, Maine, who along with William True Jr., 19, of Lewiston have all been in custody since May in connection to the murder. McNaughton and Morton face charges of murder while True, like Moody-Dabney, faces a charge of hindering apprehension or prosecution.

Parent was allegedly lured to the woods in Greene and killed because McNaughton believed Parent was a police informant, according to the Sun-Journal’s reports. His body found three days after the murder in Jug Stream in Monmouth, Maine.

Moody-Dabney was indicted on the hindering apprehension or prosecution charge on May 8 but has been on the lam since. His is the fourth and final suspect that investigators have said was wanted in connection to the murder.

Williams said prosecutors have sought to have the cases of all four men joined together in court.

Moody-Dabney is being held at the Middleton jail and is slated to go before a judge at Salem District Court on Friday. He could be returned to Maine as soon as Friday afternoon, Devlin said.