MSP Det. Ralph Pinkham 1981 Investigation Report
 
Det. Ralph Pinkham's arson/homicide report  Feb. 24 - Mar. 11, 1981
February 24, 1981

1130 AM
This officer received a call from the Orono State Police Barracks stating that a body had been found in the remains of a cottage fire at Lake Lucerne in the Town of Dedham by Inspector Wilbur Ricker of State Fire Marshall’s Office.

1320 hours
This officer arrived at the scene on Sumac Road ... Present at the scene were [MSP] Det. Herbert B. Shuman, Inspector Wilber Ricker, Lucerne Village Fire Chief Norman Herrin, and [MSP] Cpl. Alan Jamison. Ricker showed this officer the body of an unidentified human being laying in what was the left front part of the burned down structure and stated that the fire had occurred on February 18, 1981, but that all available Fire Marshall personnel had been tied up with a triple fatal fire [Patricia Oakes, Donald Morrel and Jesse Eddins.] in the city of Bangor on that date and that this was their first visit to this fire scene. Ricker further stated that it was his opinion that the fire was the result of arson.

1500 hours
This officer arrived at the Bangor Police Department and met with  Lt. Roger Bryce and his detectives to discuss the fire death at Lake Lucerne, to determine if there was any connection with the triple fatal fire in the City of Bangor on the same date [the Bangor arson was on the 17th and Lucerne Lake arson was on the 18th], and to try to identify the deceased.

1600 hours
This officer talked with Lt. Fred Clarke of the Bangor Police Department, currently Acting Director [of Maine DEA], who advised that on the night of February 17, 1981 and in the early morning hours of February 18, 1981, his agents, along with Bangor Police Detectives, had arrested David Dupray, DOB: 10–27–49; Percy Sargent, and Percy Cote in the Town of Holden on a buy-bust drug trafficking charge. ...

1630
This officer received a call from Herb Saucier an [DEA] Agent in Lewiston, Maine. Saucier stated that he had been contacted by Richard Sargent, a known drug dealer, and brother of Percy Sargent, and that Sargent had stated that the deceased subject in the cottage was Micheal Cochran.

2200

    
2300
This officer made arrangements to get medical records from the Eastern Maine Medical Center at Bangor and also dental records on Micheal Cochran, the suspected deceased, and forward them to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in an attempt to make positive identification of the deceased. On this date this officer received a call from the Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Henry Ryan, stating that he had positively identified the deceased as Micheal Cochran and arrangements were made to notify the next of kin.

February 26, 1981

0015
This officer interviewed Robert Elrick an inmate at the Penobscot County Jail.  And in that statement Pinkham writes that "Elrick stated that the night that Percy Sargent was arrested on drug charges and brought to the Penobscot County Jail, that he had overheard an inmate by the name of David Harrington, who was doing time for operating under the influence and Percy Sargent talking Sargent had stated to Harriman that he thought Michael Cochran had set him up for the drug bust and that he (Sargent) had already made the call out to have Cochran taken care of."