Maine police arrest Portsmouth man in 1993 Kittery killing

A 33-year-old Kittery homicide finally broke open when Maine State Police used newer DNA testing on long-saved evidence and arrested Daniel Jolly, 59, of Portsmouth in the killing of Maxine Bitomski. Bitomski was 73 when she was found dead inside her Colonial Road home, a case that sat cold for more than three decades before investigators found a way to make the file actionable again.

Police said Jolly was arrested at about 6:13 a.m. on June 4 in Portsmouth and was taken to Rockingham County Jail in New Hampshire while extradition proceedings move forward. Bitomski was last seen alive by her granddaughter on the evening of January 15, 1993. Family members found her deceased at 3 Colonial Road the next day, and the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta later ruled the death a homicide after an autopsy on January 17, 1993.

The key shift came when detectives reopened the case in 2021 and reexamined the evidence with advances in DNA testing. That work, police said, allowed investigators to process forensic material that had not been useful in the original investigation and eventually identify Jolly as the suspect. Maine State Police also said Jolly knew Bitomski through his work with Medical Market, the Portsmouth medical supply company that provided oxygen equipment and services to her before her death.

The case had already shown signs of renewed pressure by February 2022, when Seacoast Crime Stoppers offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an indictment or arrest. At that point, police said they had identified a person of interest through new DNA technology, and Bitomski’s grandson George White told mourners at the time that “an arrest would not bring her back, but it would provide a sense of justice.” The arrest came after years in which the file had not moved far enough to support a charge, despite repeated attention from cold-case investigators.

Lt. Tom Pickering said the arrest reflected the determination and commitment of investigators who never stopped working the case. For Bitomski’s family, and for a homicide that stayed lodged in Maine crime memory for more than 30 years, the old fear finally became a named suspect, a jail cell, and the next step toward court.