KENNEBUNK — Through dogged determination and painstaking investigative work, police have made an arrest in a four-year-old bank robbery case in Ellsworth and have arrested a Kennebunk resident for that crime.

The Key Bank on High Street in Ellsworth was robbed by an individual wearing a disguise on Feb. 3, 2014, and the suspect made off with more than $2,000 in that incident. 

According to Ellsworth Police Lt. Harold K. Page, all known leads in the case were followed up at the time, but no viable suspect was ever developed.

Page said that the robbery suspect was overly contrite during the incident and repeatedly apologized to tellers for his actions.

No customers were in the bank when it was robbed and the suspect didn’t threaten anyone or display a weapon. He wore a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt, a face mask, sunglasses and gloves and placed the money in a small, avocado-colored bag with the word Ryobi on it before driving off alone in a dark-colored extended-cab pickup truck. 

“I was assigned to the case in December 2016,” Page said. “I followed up on a lead about a male that was in a pickup that was stopped by Sgt. Shawn Willey a month after the robbery that matched the description of the getaway vehicle at the time of the robbery.”

Through a lengthy investigation, Page was able to find out where the suspect worked.

“I investigated this male and subpoenaed company records,” he said. “I was able to obtain a grand jury indictment on Matthew Lemery for the bank robbery.”

Over the course of the investigation, Page worked closely with Sgt. Michael Hayes of the York County Sheriff’s Office to track and find Lemery.

“Once I advised Sgt. Hayes that I had obtained an arrest warrant for Lemery, he was instrumental in locating Lemery and learned where he would be on the day he was arrested,” Page said. “I traveled to Kennebunk and met with Sgt. Hayes and Det. Shawn Sanborn. With their assistance along with a Maine State Trooper and officers from the Kennebunk Police Department, Lemery was taken into custody without incident at his residence.”

In 2014, Lemery, 29, was living in Alfred, but he worked for an insulation company that did business in Ellsworth. He subsequently moved to Kennebunk where he was living at the time of his arrest on April 11.

Lemery was charged with robbery, a Class B felony, and theft by unauthorized taking, a Class C offense and is currently awaiting trial on the charges.

— Executive Editor Ed Pierce can be reached at 282-1535 ext. 326 or by email at editor@journaltribune.com.