A Maine man is behind bars without bail this week after police say a decade of neighborly cooperation ended in a horrific scene involving a baseball bat, a chainsaw, and a fire pit.
Tanner Dostie, 45, was arrested on April 10 and charged with the murder of his 61-year-old neighbor, Dennis Blasens, after a series of bizarre events that began at a local church.
The situation came to light when police were called to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting to handle a disturbance. Witnesses told investigators that Dostie had been acting inappropriately toward women at the gathering and appeared to be under the influence.
When officers arrived, the scene took a strange turn: Dostie reportedly crawled across the parking lot on his stomach, refused to drop a knife tucked into his belt, and had to be hit with a stun gun 13 times before he was finally detained.
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Once in custody, the details became even darker. According to court documents, Dostie told investigators he had consumed an entire bag of stolen psychedelic mushrooms.
During his interview, he allegedly confessed to killing Blasens, his neighbor of ten years, claiming he did it “to free his wife.” He reportedly told officers he had “chopped him up into little bitty pieces” and directed them to a fire pit outside his home.
Search warrants later confirmed the grim details. Investigators found human remains in the fire pit and blood both inside and outside the residence. Police believe the two men were working on a truck together when the attack occurred.
They allege Dostie beat Blasens with a bat and stabbed him before using a chainsaw to dismember the body and burn the evidence.
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A possible motive surfaced through conversations with the victim’s wife, Michelle Blasens. She told detectives that her husband and Dostie spent every day working on the truck together, but tension had been building. She noted that Dostie had allegedly failed to pay her husband back for various truck parts.
While Dostie reportedly told police he felt remorse and would apologize if he could, he also allegedly stated he felt “the happiest he had ever been” immediately following the killing.
Dostie made his first court appearance on April 13. He did not enter a plea, and an arraignment date has not yet been set.
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