UNION, Maine — Family, friends and strangers came together Thursday evening to paddle out on Crawford Pond to remember Sunshine “Sunny” Stewart on what should have been her 49th birthday.

Many of the participants left from the boat launch at Mic Mac Cove Family Campground, which helped organize the Paddle for Sunny. Many others joined from private docks around the pond.

A plaque was placed on 100 Acre Island where her life ended on July 2 .

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta confirmed her cause of death as strangulation and blunt force trauma. Deven Young, 17, of Frankfort was arrested on July 17 and charged with the murder of Stewart . He is being held without bail and a status conference for his case is scheduled for Aug. 22.

But on Stewart’s birthday, the att

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