Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Sunday
New Sweden, Maine Church Congregation Reels From Last Sunday's Poisoning
Aired May 04, 2003 - 18:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: In New Sweden, Maine, a church congregation reeling from last Sunday's poisoning episode now has to face a horrifying and frankly heartbreaking prospect. One of the church's own long time members is a suspect, suspected of lacing their coffee with arsenic.
CNN's Jason Carroll has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (voice-over): The end of services at the Gustaf Adolf Evangelical Church, this is the first time many of these parishioners have seen each other since an arsenic poisoning incident here last week. Ed Magneson said a prayer for his son who is still hospitalized
ED MAGNESON, CHURCH MEMBER: We don't have a lot of information. I can say that he's responding as well as all the others.
CARROLL: Others like Erica Anderson's uncle and her mother.
ERICA ANDERSON, CHURCH MEMBER: She's in fair condition. My uncle is in Bangor and he's in critical condition at this moment.
CARROLL: The service was private, off limits to cameras, but the message was clear. Faith will help in time of pain. Dawn Peterson said special attention was paid to children to hers to make sure they understood.
DAWN PETERSON, RESIDENT: It not only touched the adults in this community but it touched the children, even the young ones.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We wanted to begin to both include them and to get them to be able to start talking about what they're afraid of and to reassure them that things will get better.
CARROLL: What may be difficult for the adults to explain is the possibility someone from within the fold may be responsible for what happened. Police say they gathered information over the weekend at Daniel Bondeson's farm that may link the former parishioner to last Sunday's arsenic poisoning. Bondeson died Friday after an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. And while investigators are focused on trying to solve the crime, parishioners will continue to try to heal.
What gets you through?
MAGNESON: I don't know. It's strength. It's hope. I guess it's just something you have to do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Many of the parishioners that we spoke to, including Ed Magneson, told us that they knew Daniel Bondeson and they described him as a kind and a gentle man. They said he was not known as the kind of man who would be capable of doing something like poisoning his fellow parishioners -- Anderson.
COOPER: The story just gets stranger and stranger, so much pain in that small little town. Jason Carroll, thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Sunday's Poisoning>
Aired May 4, 2003 - 18:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: In New Sweden, Maine, a church congregation reeling from last Sunday's poisoning episode now has to face a horrifying and frankly heartbreaking prospect. One of the church's own long time members is a suspect, suspected of lacing their coffee with arsenic.
CNN's Jason Carroll has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (voice-over): The end of services at the Gustaf Adolf Evangelical Church, this is the first time many of these parishioners have seen each other since an arsenic poisoning incident here last week. Ed Magneson said a prayer for his son who is still hospitalized
ED MAGNESON, CHURCH MEMBER: We don't have a lot of information. I can say that he's responding as well as all the others.
CARROLL: Others like Erica Anderson's uncle and her mother.
ERICA ANDERSON, CHURCH MEMBER: She's in fair condition. My uncle is in Bangor and he's in critical condition at this moment.
CARROLL: The service was private, off limits to cameras, but the message was clear. Faith will help in time of pain. Dawn Peterson said special attention was paid to children to hers to make sure they understood.
DAWN PETERSON, RESIDENT: It not only touched the adults in this community but it touched the children, even the young ones.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We wanted to begin to both include them and to get them to be able to start talking about what they're afraid of and to reassure them that things will get better.
CARROLL: What may be difficult for the adults to explain is the possibility someone from within the fold may be responsible for what happened. Police say they gathered information over the weekend at Daniel Bondeson's farm that may link the former parishioner to last Sunday's arsenic poisoning. Bondeson died Friday after an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. And while investigators are focused on trying to solve the crime, parishioners will continue to try to heal.
What gets you through?
MAGNESON: I don't know. It's strength. It's hope. I guess it's just something you have to do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Many of the parishioners that we spoke to, including Ed Magneson, told us that they knew Daniel Bondeson and they described him as a kind and a gentle man. They said he was not known as the kind of man who would be capable of doing something like poisoning his fellow parishioners -- Anderson.
COOPER: The story just gets stranger and stranger, so much pain in that small little town. Jason Carroll, thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Sunday's Poisoning>
