ELLSWORTH — Combined services for the Garland mother and her two children killed last week in what police are calling domestic violence homicides will be held Sunday and Monday at a local funeral home.
A visitation is scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday and a memorial service starts at 2 p.m. Monday, at the Bragdon-Kelley Funeral Home, located at 215 Main St., according to the funeral home’s website.
Christina Sargent, 36, and her children, Duwayne Coke, 10, and Destiny Sargent, 8, were found dead on Dec. 20 in the home they shared in Garland with Keith Coleman. Coleman, 27, is behind bars at the Penobscot County Jail facing three counts of murder in connection with their deaths.
Coleman confessed to police that he killed his girlfriend in front of the children and then killed them because they witnessed the crime, according to the probable cause affidavit filed by Detective Greg Mitchell of the Maine State Police’s major crimes unit north.
Court documents indicated that the victims were strangled.
An online site seeking donations for funeral expenses for the family had raised more than $5,000 by Friday afternoon, and Machias Savings Bank in Ellsworth is also accepting funds for funeral expenses under Christina Sargent’s name.
Christina Ann Sargent was a private duty nurse at Sunbury Village in Bangor. She is survived by her mother and stepfather, Mary and George Wooster of Hancock; her father and stepmother, Dwight and Lauralee Sargent of Minnesota; and her two sons, Dominic Sargent of Ellsworth and Patrick Sargent of Minnesota, her obituary states.
Duwayne Linwood Coke is survived by his father, Steven David Lenz of Minnesota; brothers Landon Lenz and Rylan Lenz of Minnesota, Dominic Sargent of Ellsworth and Patrick Sargent of Minnesota, and his grandparents and great-grandparents from Maine and Minnesota, according to his obituary.
Destiny Ann Sargent is survived by her father, Nathaniel Sargent of Sullivan; her brothers Dominic Sargent of Ellsworth, Patrick Sargent of Minnesota, and Brayden Sargent of Franklin; and grandparents and great-grandparents from Maine and Minnesota, her obituary states.
“A special thanks is given to Hancock grammar school for spreading awareness of domestic violence and remembering our loved ones,” all three obituaries state.
Grief counseling was set up at Ridge View Community School in Dexter, where the two children attended school, and more is planned when students return to school in January.
There have been 19 homicides in Maine this year, and 12 of them have been deemed domestic violence-related, according to Stephen McCausland, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman. At least five of the victims, two in Garland and three in Saco in July, were children.
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