New Bombshell Rocks Teen Paddleboard Murder Case

We are following a major update in the case of a paddleboarder allegedly murdered by a teenager who is on vacation with his family. There has been a lot of secrecy surrounding the case of Devon Young since his arrest in July of 2025. He's been held at a juvenile facility in Maine, but we have new information on where his case could go next, plus this. We've acquired audio that raises questions about this boy's behavior before he allegedly took the life of a woman who was beloved by so many people, triggering a manhunt that made national news and rocked a small New England town in the middle of the summer. We're on the case presented by Lawn Crime. I'm Chris Stewart. 10 days after the body of a paddleboarder in Maine named Sunshine Stewart was found on an island in a pond. 17-year-old Devon Young commented that he was "doing well" on his Facebook page. It was in response to a comment on a picture as he was out on vacation with his family at the same campsite that Stewart was staying at. And the next day after he made that comment, he was put under arrest for her murder. This is video of Devon Young in court on November 6th of this year, Purdue Center Maine. And this is the first time that we have seen him in court since his arrest in July of 2025. And we'll talk a little bit more about that in the development in his case here in just a moment. But I want you to meet the woman who was at the center of this story. The woman who Young is accused of murdering, her name was Sunshine Stewart and her friends called her Sonny. And she was a native manor. She grew up in Union Maine, which is where Crawford pond is located, the pond that she went out on, and where she allegedly lost her life at the hands of Young. Now, friends say that Sonny was at this campsite that Young was staying at because she had rented a camper for the summer and she was going to spend several weeks at this site. It was called the Mick Mack campsite. And the campsite's located on the north end of Crawford pond. And this was a place that people could come. Maybe you're doing a short-term thing and just camping and enjoying the nature. Or in Sonny's case, she was going to spend several weeks there. Sonny reportedly held several jobs over the years. At one point, she was a boat captain, she was a contractor, and she's just someone who friends say loved the outdoors. Now, as for Devon Young, who was staying at the campsite as well, he was on summer vacation with his family. And they're from roughly 45 minutes away from where this campsite's located. On the evening of July 2nd, 2025, Sunshine Stewart went out on the pond to paddle board, just a quiet New England night in the summer. But she never returned. Police were called in. They searched Crawford pond for hours. And then around one o'clock in the morning, they found Sonny's body. Authorities say she had been murdered. Her cause of death was strangulation and blunt force trauma. Now, her death became national news. This is not a place that typically sees crimes like this. This is a place where people come to relax and get away. Sonny's body was found on July 3rd, and it took authorities roughly two weeks to find their suspect. And as they were investigating, Devon Young apparently offered his help multiple times, which stood out as suspicious to some people. The owner of the campsite told ABC News at the time that young allegedly told investigators that he might have information to help them in their search for a suspect. And she says he actually brought investigators out on the water. And when he did that, he allegedly led them in the direction opposite of where Sonny's body was found. She called it a quote, wild goose chase that Devon Young allegedly took investigators on. And that I'm sure stood out as a red flag to them as they were investigating this murder. On July 16th, 13 days after Sonny's body was found, Devon Young was put under arrest. Days before he was taken into custody, though, according to WGME Television, he posted on his Facebook in response to comments on a picture that he was, quote, doing well. He gets pissed off when you tell him to do something that he doesn't want to do. And just started swearing in my face, throws. Now, before I get back to where Young's case is about to go, I want to share with you some audio we have out of Waldo County, Maine, just about 45 minutes from where Young was on vacation with his family on Crawford Pine. This audio is from a Waldo County sheriff's deputies body cam of when he went to Young's house in January of 2023. Devon Young reportedly told the teacher at school that he had been hit at home. So authorities went to go check things out. Well, Devon was at school. He asked if his eye looked puffed up. Yeah, and for some ice. Yeah. And he said that he received it from you here at the house. You tell me what happened? We was out working with the excavator, and I don't, you guys probably ain't real familiar with Devon's temperamental. We were told by, he has bad spells. Yeah. If his medication ain't on board. We was out there messing around with the excavator cleaning up the ad and he got me an argument with me and we got our scuffle and I slapped him in the face. He got it, ended up getting a finger in the eye. What was the argument about? Just him helping out because he was attempting to come back in, was going to mess around on his video games and stuff like that. I don't care if he plays the video games, but I just assume he'd be out there helping me when I was going out. My dad was out there. You're right out there helping him too. The audio appears to be the deputy speaking with Devon's parents. And the parents say that Devon has allegedly been diagnosed with multiple conditions, including bipolar disorder. When he doesn't take his men, he's like, well, I don't know if you've ever dealt with bipolar people, but he's very, very like, he's the sweetest, nicest kid you'll ever meet in life. And then he's like a crazy little psycho. And it sucks. And there's nothing we can do. The Portland press Harold newspaper says that Devon was on a wait list for three years to get in-home services, but could not get an appointment with the state for that. Now, as far as the charges he is now facing, the accusations of being a murderer and where this case could go next, Devon young waved his right to have a hearing over whether his case should be tried in adult court. So it is going to move forward to adult court. Young is now 19 years old. He was 17 at the time. He allegedly killed Sonny Stewart. And he has been deemed competent to stand trial. If he has found guilty, young would face a potential life sentence for the murder of Sunshine Stewart. Join us now to talk more about this former criminal prosecutor, Dan Shore. Always great to have you on long crime. I feel like in a lot of cases when someone is somewhat close to 18 and you have charges as horrific as what Devon young is accused of, there's not really much of a debate of whether or not they're going to be charged as an adult. What do you make of his decision to wave a hearing and just pretty much accept it seems the situation where this is going to be a case that will not be in the juvenile court system? Yes, I think that shows that it was a strategic decision that they felt they were not going to win this hearing and that going through the hearing wouldn't be a good strategic move for them and might hinder their ability to negotiate a better plea bargain. Usually if a defendant is making a difficult time for the prosecutor to bring the case, they're less likely to negotiate a plea bargain. So I don't know what the prosecutor's looking to do here in terms of negotiating on that front, but it seems to me that this defendant and his attorneys figured out he was probably going to lose this hearing. It would hinder his ability to get a better plea deal and also it wouldn't help him going through the hearing. That's not something it would benefit him. So that's probably why they decided to just agree that he would be tried as an adult. And as far as this point, we don't really know a lot of the evidence that prosecutors have against Devon Young. Like we know that he was extra helpful at the campsite to the point that law enforcement thought that was suspicious. They believed that he went out on a fishing boat, but as far as the interaction itself and sunny Stewart dies of blunt force trauma and strangulation. We don't know what specifically ties Devon Young to that. If he had held this hearing, how likely would it have been that that type of information would have had to have been put forward by by prosecutors? That might have come out because part of the factors that is used to determine whether someone tries an adult is a seriousness of the crime, the culpability, what the person did or allegedly did. So I would suspect the prosecutors to some extent would have to show the viciousness of the alleged crime here. And it seems like it's not just because there was a murder here. There was evidence of strangulation of blunt force trauma. So if anything, there might be a question of who committed the murder, but it doesn't seem like there's a debate that there was a really horrible crime here. And that would probably come out of the hearing like this. It would would not be probably helpful for this defendant to have it come out that way and lose a hearing. So we still don't know exactly what's tying him to the crime, but there might be forensic evidence. We don't know what he said to the police. We know that this area was a confined area. It wasn't a public area. So maybe there was a small universe of people that were known to be in the area when the crime occurred. So those are some of the things that I'm sure led to the police and law enforcement authorities deciding to arrest this defendant and to try him. - Yeah, and for people who haven't fought, I mean, we covered this case back in 2025 when this manhood was going on. And like a key piece of evidence was that Crawford Pond does not have a public boat launch. So all the homes that are on that property, you know who lives in those homes and then you have the MacMac campsite campground where Sonny Stewart was saying and then Devin Young allegedly was staying as well with his family on vacation. You would know who was staying at that campsite because it's like a hotel where you would get a reservation and book your spot. Book your spot there which did help law enforcement zero in on Devin Young. What do you make of? 'Cause there's a lot of the evidence in this case as far as specifically the forensics and all of that. We don't really know much yet. But we do know according to witness statements that are out there that Devin Young was very helpful or appeared to be too law enforcement when they were conducting this manhunt. What stands out to you about that? That this was someone who is now accused of a terrible crime but then seemed to not just kind of be around law enforcement but actively wanted to be involved in the investigation. - Right, some of the public information is that he was appearing to assist law enforcement in solving this trying to find the body that he might have led them astray at one time in the direction that they were looking for the body. So sometimes I've seen other cases like that. Sometimes when someone poses as if they're helpful they reveal either information or suggestions that they provide to law enforcement that's zero away from solving the crime. And sometimes that shows a consciousness of guilt because if someone seems to know where to look or not to look, then that implies that they had some knowledge of the crime. So those individual statements he made to law enforcement might be really helpful for law enforcement to show that he was aware of what area the body might be. And if he was steering people away from a certain area that the body was able to ultimately found in, that would certainly be something that suggests he was aware of where the body was. - At the same time, there was some Facebook posts that he made after the fact of like, he was just on vacation with his family. There's supposed to be at this campsite for a period of time. Some were break from school where he was going, how does that factor in? Like if there is the forensic evidence that proves that Devon Young is the person who killed Sonny Stewart, how does not just the statements to police and leading them and what, I think the owner of the campsite told he had seen it was like a wild goose chase. He was just pointing them in the direction away from where Sunshine's body was found. But then also you have social media activity with someone who seemed to carry on with their regular life as opposed to, I think for a lot of people, if you committed that type of crime, it'd be difficult to live with yourself. - Right, but for most people, they wouldn't be able to commit a crime like that in the first place, so it's hard to say what someone who would commit that crime. So he's in a central proven guilty, but if he committed this crime, that's obviously an incredibly egregious step that most people would not take. So once someone does that, it's not shocking that someone who did that would then try to take the minimal effort to cover up their intent and their activities by posting something on social media showing that they were engaged in instant activity around that time. So that is not too shocking the fact that he stayed involved with helping law enforcement in an active way. Not only does that feel appalling to hear about, but it's also not surprising, 'cause sometimes people who commit a crime like this, some people do take a lot of steps to try to cover it up after for obvious reasons, 'cause they know that if they're caught, then there's going to be serious consequences. He's facing potentially the rest of his life in prison. And that's an extreme incentive to do everything you can to avoid being found and ultimately prosecuted. So there have been reports out there and then there's some audio from 2023 where it's believed to be his parents said that he had been diagnosed with multiple conditions, including bipolar disorder. So you have this teenager who has been diagnosed with issues apparently he's medicated for it. How does that factor into just how this case could play out? And in one hand, is that something we're prosecutors and say, look, this is something that maybe propelled him to allegedly do what he did, but then I can also see the defense say that this is someone who has mental health issues that may be at the center of what he's accused of. - Right, so I can say there's three different parts of that. One is just the ability to stand trial in this case and the standard for that is whether someone understands what the proceedings are and can assist in their own defense. And none of those medical records and medical information seems to suggest that he can't participate in his own defense, so it's not going to be helpful there. In terms of being convicted for the crime, the general standard there is whether someone is unable to know and appreciate what they did and that it's wrong. And those types of mental health challenges aren't the type where someone would necessarily be delusional and not be aware of what they're doing. And the fact that he was posting on social media was helping steer law enforcement to in a fake way to try to solve this shows that there was some awareness and intent of what was happening. So I don't think there's any type of defense there from a legal perspective. The third thing I would say is that sometimes a mitigating or seemingly mitigating factor like that could be used in sentencing, both during the police stage and if he's convicted a trial with sentencing. So a judge or a prosecutor may offer a slightly lighter sentence because of those challenges that someone experienced, but it's more unlikely that's going to happen in a case where there is strangulation, one forced trauma. No seeming justification for killing someone here. And that's not the type of case that usually there's a lot of favoritism because someone has mental health challenges or other illnesses because people who commit a crime like that are not going to be mentally well-adjusted people usually. So anyone who commits a crime like that is going to have some type of issue like that. And it's usually not used as an excuse for a mitigating factor. - So he was arrested in July 2025. It's been more than a year. He's been in a juvenile facility ever since. And just now is this case being moved to adult court. What is the day to day like for a prosecutor on this case at this point? I know you're probably preparing for a trial, but it's not like a trial's two weeks away. Like what is the day to day maintenance of a trial like this, especially when you're just now getting to the point where this case is in the adult court? - Well, one thing, and probably the most important thing at this stage is securing all available evidence, witness accounts, information, making sure it's in a comprehensive, complete manner. You don't want to be surprised later on that someone else knew something and told the member of law enforcement but it never came to use. So really chasing down all those leads. And then preparing for discovery, you want to make sure you turn overall information that you need to to the defense at the appropriate time because sometimes even if there's overwhelming evidence against somebody, there could be discovery violations that undermine the prosecution of the case. So a lot of this is being thorough, being organized and making sure you're complying with the law. And that's a big part of the prosecutor, the prosecutor's role at this stage is making sure you're on top of every single piece of information associated with this case. - I know this probably varies from state to state, but so you have, he is no longer a minor, but he was at the time that this allegedly took place when he was 17, he's now 19 years old. If he were to be found guilty, does the fact that he did this allegedly as a minor factor into what life would look like for him in the prison system? 'Cause I'm sure if this was a case where a 16 year old is found guilty and he's 16 years old at the time that he's convicted, that that can impact general population type of prison that someone's in. When someone committed the crime allegedly as a minor and then is convicted as an adult, what does life look like for them going forward? - That's a state-by-state issue, but I think that if someone's convicted of murder as an adult, they're probably going to an adult detention facility. And I would be, I mean, he can't go to a youth detention facility if he's convicted as an adult as far as I understand the law. So that's going to be really difficult for him, but he is 19 by the time he's convicted, it will probably be at least a year older. There are plenty of people that age in adult facilities. So just, he was 17 when he committed this, but I would be, if he's convicted at trial or has a plea deal where he agrees to a prison sentence, I would expect him to go to an adult facility and be treated like any other adult at that age. 'Cause he'll probably be at least 20 by that time. - Yeah, I mean, 'cause I think going through, I mean, you're just getting to adult, to the adult court and then hopefully now we get more access to some of the information that prosecutors have as this case goes forward. We just saw him in court for the first time since his arrest back in 2025. We don't know of a motive at this point. We know that he was staying at the campsite. Sunshine Stewart was staying at the campsite, but as far as the motive, and if there are the forensics there for prosecutors and you can tie him to this, how important is it that you are able to tell the jury that this is why he allegedly did this to this woman? - Right, that's a great question. So in order to prove intentional murder, you need to prove intent that there was an intent to kill, you don't have to prove motive. Now, motive can be really helpful because if you can show that someone had a motive to kill someone, the jury's more likely to believe beyond a reasonable doubt that they did kill them. But there are many times that prosecutors can never show motive. So let's say hypothetically, he or someone else got into a fight with a victim here argument and then decided to kill them, the victim is deceased and the defendant may never tell their story because they have the right to remain silent. So you may never know the motive. But I think that the details of the crime are really important. Strangulation is something that doesn't happen instantly. It takes time to strangle someone. Blunt force trauma is another separate act that led to the death of this victim here. So that all, that type of crime is a very intentional crime. You don't accidentally strangle someone. You don't accidentally kill them with strangulation blood force trauma and that that type of crime shows an intent to either kill someone or really hurt them, but probably to kill someone. So I think that's what the prosecutor needs to show it beyond a reasonable doubt. I'm certainly they would love to determine a motive, but it's not necessary and it's often difficult in a case like this. Yeah, just a it's a horrific story out of Maine. And you just think of where it took place, the people who were involved. This is a woman who was beloved by so many people and this was in a place where people go to just get away in that time of year. And for this to happen, it's just it's a terrible story. And we'll see what happens on the criminal side of things now for Devon Young going forward as an adult. Dan Shore, it's always great to have you on long crime. I know you do a lot of work on a lot of different stories that we'll talk about here whenever you come on our show. Working people find some of your work online as well. Sure. So I write fiction, but it's based on real crimes that I've investigated in my career so people can find more information. If they look under my name, Dan Shore on either sub-stack or online if they Google me, they could find information about that also. Awesome. Great stuff. Dan Shore, former criminal prosecutor. Always good to have you on long crime. Thanks for doing this. Thanks Chris. Great to talk to you. That will do it for on the case presented by law and crime. I'm Chris Stewart. We'll see you next time.