Poisonous air about church

Friction between farmer Daniel Bondeson and members of his Maine church may have led him to spike its coffee with arsenic, killing one man, authorities said yesterday.

Maine State Police Lt. Dennis Appleton said authorities are taking a close look at the “dynamics” of the Gustaf Adolph Evangelical Lutheran Church in rural New Sweden.

“It probably was something that was grinding at some people for some time,” Appleton said. “In the end, we may find they don’t seem like logical explanations for murder.”

Bondeson died Friday of what cops initially said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. However, the coroner has yet to formally rule it a suicide, and authorities continue to investigate other church members.

“We feel there’s a potential for more than one person to be involved,” Appleton said. “Many investigators are not comfortable saying that [Bondeson] acted alone, or that he introduced the poison into the coffee.”

Bondeson was not present when the coffee was made after April 26 services, although he had been at a church bake sale the previous day.

The parishioner who brewed the coffee was among the 15 sickened from the arsenic, which killed Walter Reid Morrill, 78. Three others are in critical condition.

Appleton said it took “some tugging and pulling” to get church members in the tiny community to talk.

“Perhaps they weren’t as candid at first as they could have been,” Appleton said. Apparently, they later decided, “We better just bare our souls.”

Alwin Espling, 75, a distant relative of Bondeson, said he has no idea what authorities are talking about.

“We’re so close neighbors, we’re friends,” he said. “I never dreamed that it could have been Danny that did this. I still wonder about it.”

Paul Bondeson, Daniel Bondeson’s older brother, told The Associated Press that just last month, he and his brother gave the church a Communion table in memory of their parents and two other relatives who died in recent years.

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