Samuel Whittemore, Belfast, Maine engineer kills his yoga teacher wife, Margaux while visiting his parents’ home in Readfield. Couple who documented world wind romance on social media had recently married and returned to the U.S.
A Maine man has been accused of killing his yoga teacher wife while the couple was visiting his parents in Readfield earlier this week. The alleged murder follows the couple returning to the U.S following their globe trotting expeditions in which they documented their travels on social media.
Samuel Whittemore, 34, of Belfast, an engineer and a former Space X employee was charged with killing 32-year-old Margaux Whittemore (née Margaux Nguyen) on Wednesday at his parents’ home according to a release from Maine State Police.
Responding officers found the victim’s body outside along with Whittemore’s injured mother, Dorothy Whittemore, 67, inside the home. The woman’s death was ruled a homicide, WMTW reported. Police declined to share the manner of the spouse’s death.
‘passionate engineer and sailor with intriguing life and work experience spanning the globe’
The parent who lived with the suspect’s father (who was not home at the time) was expected to survive her ordeal, WABI reported.
The ensuing violence is alleged to have occurred just on 10 a.m, Wednesday morning.
Samuel allegedly fled but was tracked down by a trooper a short time later, according to the statement. He was then transported to Maine General Hospital for evaluation and taken to Kennebec County Jail and charged with murder, PEOPLE reported.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Whittemore is a 2014 graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who worked as a Senior Avionics Systems Engineer at SpaceX until 2021.
Reads his about page in part: ‘passionate engineer and sailor,’ with a host of intriguing life and work experiences that span the globe.
The profile also describes him as the captain of the Havili, a 50-foot sailboat which he sailed across the Pacific, ‘with stops in Mexico, French Polynesia, Tonga, New Zealand, [and] Hawaii.’
World whirl romance comes to an abrupt end
Margaux Whittemore was a yoga instructor whose Instagram feed is full of colorful shots of the couple’s travels across the world. The Instagram account also shows photos of their wedding day along with the couple traveling extensively. The couple had recently returned to the United States and were living in Belfast, Maine.
According to Margaux’s social media posts, the pair met in 2021 and wed in Acadia National Park in September of last year.
Whittemore, who had been scheduled to appear in court on Friday, had his hearing delayed due to what his lawyers called a ‘competency issue.’ The judge in the case called for a competency evaluation of Whittemore before his first hearing.
The judge also added a status conference which will be scheduled in the near future once there’s a better idea of Whittemore’s competency.
Whittemore is currently being held without bail. No murder motive was immediately known.
