For near 50 years, the unsolved murder of 27-year-old Dorothy Milliken has haunted the people of Lewiston and the towns that surround it.

A mother of three from Sabattus, Milliken was beaten to death in the wee hours Nov. 6, 1976, while doing laundry at Beal’s Laundromat on Lisbon Street.

Plenty of suspects have emerged over the decades but no arrests were ever made, and Milliken’s death continues to gather dust in the Maine State Police cold case files.

But a Portland author has taken a fresh look into the killing and the result is a book that offers the most comprehensive breakdown of the case ever put forth to the public.

Enter Sharon Kitchens, whose book “The Murder of Dorothy Milliken: Cold Case in Maine” is the seminal work on a topic that has baffled so many.

The 206-page book, to be released in early June by Arcadia Publishing, features dozens of interviews with police investigators, Milliken’s family and a hearty number of people who may hold crucial pieces to this stubborn puzzle.

WHO KILLED DOROTHY MILLIKEN?

Writing the book was not an easy affair for Kitchens. Like so many newspaper reporters before her, she found complexity and frustration around every dark corner she explored.

“There were a few tough days,” Kitchens said. “I found myself in situations where I was hearing things I never imagined I would. But what stayed with me even more was the disappointment I felt toward the Maine State Police. I won’t go into specifics, but I kept asking myself, ‘What are they doing to solve this? How can they hold on to this case for decades and not seem to be doing anything with it?’ Maybe they are; I honestly don’t know.”

In writing the book, Kitchens became close with Milliken’s family, particularly her daughter, Tonia, who was 7 years old when her mother was killed.

For decades, Tonia has been fighting doggedly to find justice in her mother’s killing. She has hounded police to keep the case active and stayed in constant touch with the media to keep her mother’s memory alive and in public view.

“She’s absolutely incredible,” Kitchens said. “I’m in awe of her strength and fortitude. Tonia has had to put her life back together in the wake of actual violence. I’m so grateful to her for allowing me the privilege of telling her mother’s story.

“It was also very stressful,” the author said. “I tried to maintain boundaries, which I think I did a pretty good job at — with the exception of Tonia, whom I consider a friend. The family seemed to expect me to solve the murder, and I had to be very clear that I wasn’t going to. I don’t have law enforcement training. I’m just not capable of solving it. I’ve known that from the beginning.”

And yet Kitchens’ book does offer some clues and potential suspects not seen anywhere before, except maybe in the state police files — files that, based on state police policy, were never made available to Kitchens or the many journalists who tried to crack the case in the past.

Those who read the book may come to their own conclusions as Kitchens breaks down the evidence and opens the door on a rich cast of players in the death of Dorothy Milliken.

Some readers may even be tempted to say that Kitchens did solve the case, simply by presenting so much information about it. But asked if she has a strong personal belief about who killed Milliken, Kitchens would rather her readers come to their own conclusions.

“I’m not going to answer that exactly,” she said. “Everything I learned came from reading old newspaper articles and interviewing people. There are a lot of theories out there. I passed on some of the information I found to be curious or enlightening to the state police. My impression is they’re not doing anything with it.”

“Unsolved cases listed on the Maine State Police website remain open and active investigations,” according to Shannon Moss, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety. “Details of these investigations are not publicly released. The Major Crimes Unit continues to review case files and pursue new leads as they are received. We encourage anyone with information related to any of these cases to contact the Maine State Police.”

BACK IN TIME

Kitchens’ first book, “Stephen King’s Maine: A History & Guide,” was published by The History Press in 2024.

In writing that book, Kitchens presented a Maine as seen through the mind of the Bangor author and the wild array of characters who populate his stories.

For the new book, she took a similar approach, only this time, she takes her readers to the exact time and place in which Dorothy Milliken was slain.

And she does it extremely well. Reading Kitchens’ take on the killing transports the reader to Lewiston in 1976.

“Beginning in the late 1950s, the gargantuan textile mills in downtown Lewiston started to empty out,” Kitchens writes in an early chapter of the book, “and by the mid-1970s, they had become an inescapable reminder of the town’s economic misfortunes. Many of the retail businesses that had benefited from them were closing up or closed. The industrial spirit still lingered, but the downtown was notorious as a place of in-your-face grittiness where the booze flowed and drugs were exchanged.”

It’s the same when she writes about Milliken’s hometown of Sabattus.

“Kids ran through fields, skated on or swam in local ponds depending on the season and bought ice cream and sodas from shop owners who knew them and their parents,” Kitchens writes. “There was a dark side, but that was mostly inside homes hidden away from public view.”

When it’s time to describe the circumstances surrounding Milliken’s killing, Kitchens employs the same kind of pictorial writing style, describing scenery so minutely, the reader can see, hear and smell this particular time and place.

“It was a Friday, five days after Halloween in 1976,” Kitchens writes. “Carved pumpkins still sat on porches, the flesh on the bottoms mushy. Bowls had been emptied of chocolate bars and candy corn. Plastic skeletons and paper decorations in the shape of cats and witches were stored away.”

And then there’s Milliken herself. Kitchens was able to offer up a multi-dimensional view of the young mother by speaking at length to those who knew and loved her. Her family. Her friends. Anybody, really, who was close to Milliken before she met her sad fate.

“Twenty-seven-year-old Dorothy Milliken, a mother of three, was drinking copious amounts of coffee and stressing out about money and her sick baby,” Kitchens writes in her book. “She felt weighed down, in over her head. Dorothy was due back at work as an assistant in a local dentist’s office in a few days. On Monday, her 2-and-a-half-month-old son was going in for surgery. And she had a substantial amount of laundry to do and no washing machine or dryer in the house.”

There are personal glimpses of Milliken all over the place in the book: childhood photos, pictures of the house where she grew up, scribblings inside her high school yearbook. Kitchens even tells us what kind of soda Milliken liked to drink, and what brand of cigarette she smoked.

By the time the reader gets into the guts of the grim story, we feel like we know Dorothy Milliken. And that only makes what happens next all the more sad and frustrating as Kitchens, relying on old police reports, diagrams and other evidence, describes the scene.

Arriving at Beal’s Laundromat around midnight, Kitchens tells us, “Whatever the reason, at some point, Dorothy left the building and walked into the chilled air of the parking lot, leaving her jacket behind on the counter,” the author writes. “She’d have been shivering in her flimsy top. Seconds or minutes later, a hand abruptly reached out, grabbing her by the arm, and suddenly the man’s fists began raining down on her face. Then he pulled a large metal object out from somewhere. He swung, and she fought against him, surely her muscles burning, the adrenaline coursing through her veins, the need to survive for her children. She raised her hands in a futile effort to protect her face …”

Later, after more agonizing details about the manner in which Milliken was likely killed, Kitchens presents facts that offer context.

There’s a minute-to-minute breakdown of Milliken’s last known movements before encountering the killer at the laundromat.

Kitchens tells us which Lewiston police officers were working their shifts the morning of the killing.

There’s a diagram of the crime scene and various photos, including one of Milliken’s car being towed from the bloody scene.

Kitchens tells us about a second murder that occurred in Lewiston on the same day that Milliken was beaten to death. Is there a connection between the two killings?

Don’t ask Kitchens. She just presents her facts and leaves it up for her readers to decide.

CHAPTER 2: THE INVESTIGATION

The second chapter in Kitchens’ book is called simply “A Murder Investigation,” and that’s exactly what it is.

Researching the killing for her book, Kitchens had no choice, really, but to investigate the slaying as an old-style gumshoe would do it.

She knocked on doors and made phone calls. She reached out to people who may no longer be alive or who are now too old to remember clearly.

When she did reach those with significant insights into the killing, Kitchens had to earn their trust. She had to wait for them to open up and reveal the information they’ve been holding on to for five decades.

Kitchens, in other words, took the most timeless approach to sleuthing of them all. She gathered information from every available source and then she pieced that information together bit by bit until a bigger picture emerged.

Not bad for a writer who reminds us over and over that she’s not a trained investigator.

“I’ve always been fascinated by human nature, and crime provides a powerful lens through which to examine it,” Kitchens said. “I’m also not afraid to talk to anyone. My attitude is: What’s the worst that can happen? They don’t respond to an email or call me back?

“I’m also trustworthy. A few of people were hesitant to talk to me at first. We would chat for a bit, maybe over multiple calls, and I think they sensed that I wasn’t out to judge them. I just genuinely wanted to know what they knew about Dorothy and the investigation into her murder,” she said.

The second chapter of the book begins possibly just moments after Dorothy Milliken was bludgeoned.

“It was around 4:45 a.m. on Saturday, November 6,” Kitchens writes, “when a young man dropping off papers on the sidewalk in front of 969 Lisbon Street noticed something by the side door on Dumont Avenue.”

The chapter goes through the early stages of the investigation in minute detail. It takes us through Milliken’s postmortem, the funeral, a look at Milliken’s husband and other aspects of the case that arose in the earliest days — at a time when it seemed like the killing would surely be solved.

There are long looks at the theories that have emerged over the decades and about the suspects who looked good at one time but who were nonetheless eliminated as suspects.

Kitchens relied heavily on the state police during her investigation, because they are the only agency overseeing the cold case.

Asked if they were helpful, Kitchens doesn’t seem altogether impressed.

“Not bad,” she said of her experience with the agency, “and not great.”

And yet, Kitchens was able to gather enough facts that her book will no doubt influence how her readers feel about the case. They will find some suspects that feel strong enough that they cannot be overlooked. They may find threads in the case that they want to tug at for themselves.

Which, really, is the point of the whole thing. Kitchens’ book is an invigorating new look at one of Maine’s most compelling cold cases. Nearly five decades after the killing, some in the Lewiston community are not ready to let this one go.

The book is particularly welcomed by Milliken’s family, who struggle to keep the unsolved slaying in the news in hopes of prompting a more vigorous investigation by police in charge of the case.

“I am very happy to have found Sharon,” said Tonia Ross, Dorothy’s daughter. “She did a wonderful job telling my mother’s story. I am indebted to her.”

Kitchens herself will be relieved to hear that. In researching her book, the author came to understand what trauma the family still suffers even nearly a half-century after the killing. In compiling so many facts to present to her readers, she was painfully aware that she was reopening old wounds.

“Every single detail matters to Dorothy’s loved ones,” she said. “I was terrified I was going to get something wrong and cause more harm. When I got advance copies of the book, I put them in Tonia’s hands to give to her family. Thank everything the feedback has been very positive. They’re good people; they didn’t deserve this. No one does.”

‘THE ONLY STORY I WANTED TO TELL’

Why tell Dorothy Milliken’s story?

Before Kitchens started researching for the book, she had not heard about the case. Once she stumbled across it, though, she became hooked.

In early October 2023, after she had turned in a draft for “Stephen King’s Maine: A History & Guide,” her editor encouraged her to take on a true crime book.

“I was resistant at first but went online and found the Maine State Police Unsolved Homicides webpage,” Kitchens said. “I don’t think I spent more than a few minutes there before I came across Dorothy’s case — and instinctually, I knew hers was the only story I wanted to tell. I didn’t begin working on what would eventually become the book until early February 2024.”

Kitchens is presently pitching a book that would explore the connection readers have with female characters in Stephen King’s works. It would be her second book about the Bangor author.

She has lived in Portland for three years and in Maine for 10.

“I was raised between the suburbs of Washington, D.C., and a small town in Arkansas,” she said. “I spend as much time as I can hiking in the White Mountains during the warmer months. I host and coordinate neighborhood potlucks. I have two big cats who are my furry babies and as much as possible I walk my friend’s little dog.

And while Kitchens prefers to keep her opinions about who killed Dorothy Milliken to herself, she’s completely open about whether the case will ever be solved.

“In my opinion, no,” she said. “I don’t think it will unless someone comes forward.”