This tragic case from Carrabassett Valley, Maine—a small ski town 120 miles north of Portland—centers on 24-year-old Austin Doucette, charged with murder in the March 8, 2026, shooting death of his 23-year-old girlfriend, Mikayla Rose DeSantis.
The Shooting
DeSantis was shot in the chest at their Left Bank condo (both worked at nearby Sugarloaf Mountain resort) and airlifted to Maine Medical Center, where she died despite surgery. Doucette made frantic 911 calls, driving her to paramedics while hysterically saying, “I can’t believe I did this,” “I’m sorry babe,” and insisting it was accidental. A later call from his father’s girlfriend captured him fleeing police, mentioning DeSantis’s injury, and threatening suicide.
Evidence and Relationship Red Flags
Police found bloodstains, her phone, and a receipt in his car; he directed them to a .45-caliber gun on the condo couch. Witnesses described Doucette’s verbal/emotional abuse—derogatory texts, threats, shoves (downplayed by her), and arm-grabbing. She paid his credit cards, leaving herself broke, and asked her manager for shifts avoiding home time with him.
Autopsy confirmed a single gunshot wound; he’s silent post-Miranda.
A relationship with such abuse signs ending fatally is gut-wrenching—what support gaps allowed this?
