Stetson man missing…Last seen being carried away in a cloud of blackflies.

A 46-year-old Stetson man is missing this morning, after going outside to do some yard work. His wife says he had been outside for just a few minutes, when she heard him muttering, and cursing, followed by a cry of surprise. She stepped out onto the porch, and saw him swatting at a large cloud of blackflies, and was shocked when the swarm lifted the 6 ft, 225 pound man off his feet, and carried him off toward the woods across from their home.

She told police, and game wardens, “Before he went out, I told him he better put on his D.E.E.T, but he just looked at me, and chuckled…’I don’t need any of that stuff! It’s just a few blackflies, and skeeters! I can take it!’, and then the next thing I know, he was being lugged off!”

She paused a moment as she wiped a tear from her eye, and continued. “As they were carrying him off, he looked back and saw me on the steps. I’ll never forget the look of surprise, and terror on his face. It will haunt me forever! I throwed him a can of bug spray, and he caught it, so maybe…Just maybe…”

Regional warden, Forrest Woodsman, says that large swarms of blackflies have been reported in many Maine communities this year, but this is the first time in his 20 years as a Maine warden that he has ever heard of a man being carried off. He says it is possible that the man will make it back if he is able to use the spray and it has enough D.E.E.T. in it.

At a news conference that took place just minutes ago, Warden Woodsman issued the following statement: “We will continue to search the area until supper time or so. Once it gets dark…Well? We’ll just have to wait and see!  In the meantime, I am being told there will be a memorial beans & hotdog supper this evening, to raise money for the widow. “

Doug Alley

About Doug Alley

I grew up in Bath, Maine in an upper lower class family with 3 step sisters, a step brother, and a little sister. After high school I spent 3 years serving in the USAF at Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage AK. I've competed in, and won, demolition derbies. I've competed in, and never won, stock car races. I am the 47-year-old father of an 11-year-old boy who is pretty sure he is smarter than I ever was. We live on a little less than an acre of land in a 1973 mobile home in Stetson with my wife Jen, some cats, a few chickens, and rabbits, and a couple of goats. I hunt, fish, camp out, dabble in photography, gardening, and I cook in variable degrees of near success.