The father of a 4-month-old Brunswick boy whose death was classified nearly 38 years ago as sudden infant death syndrome was arrested Friday after detectives concluded it was homicide.
Burton “Ben” Hagar, 62, was charged with murder after being indicted last week, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
Hagar is accused of killing his son, Nathan, who was found unresponsive in the family’s Brunswick apartment at 16 School St. and died at Parkview Hospital on May 9, 1979.
Hagar, who now lives in Farmington, was arrested Friday just before noon at his home on Marvel Street by state police detectives and transported to the Franklin County Jail.
State police quietly reopened the case in 1991, and the investigation was augmented by the state police cold-case unit, which became fully staffed as of last year.
“This is the first arrest as a result of the work of the unsolved-homicide unit. And there will be others as the work continues,” McCausland said.
McCausland said Friday that police are not releasing specific details at this time surrounding the new information that led state police to reopen the case 26 years ago.
The body was not exhumed, and authorities aren’t saying how they believe the infant died.
Hagar will be arraigned at 1 p.m. Wednesday in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland.
It’s unclear whether he has a lawyer, and a telephone listing for him couldn’t be found.
A woman who answered a phone number once assigned to Hagar’s deceased father said only, “God’s in control.”
The child’s mother, who divorced Hagar years ago, was informed of Hagar’s arrest Friday, McCausland said.
The state police chief, Col. Robert Williams, praised the new investigative unit that contributed to the investigation. Maine has more than 100 unsolved homicides, he said, “and the new unit is reviewing each case.”
The Hagar case represents the oldest cold case to be resolved by state police. Before Friday, the oldest resolved case concluded in 2012 with an Augusta man’s arrest for a death that took place 36 years earlier.
Oldest case
• THE HAGAR CASE represents the oldest cold case to be resolved by state police. Before Friday, the oldest resolved case concluded in 2012 with an Augusta man’s arrest for a death that took place 36 years earlier.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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