Dennis Dodge Sr. has 13 days to come up with $4,000 to pay for his son’s funeral.

Even as he frets about how to pay the bill, he wonders why he had to bury his son in the first place.

He wonders whether anyone ever will be held responsible for his son’s stabbing death.

“I’ve beat myself to death paying for funerals I shouldn’t have to pay for,” Dodge said. “My feeling is it’s going to be swept under the rug or they’re going to get off with a light sentence.”

Police have said little about the circumstances that led to the death of James Everett Dodge, 38, the night of July 13. Dodge was taken by ambulance from the home he shared with girlfriend Rebecca Bragg at 324 Hanson Road in China. He died a short time later at MaineGeneral Medical Center.

The state medical examiner quickly determined Dodge had died as a result of a homicide — a single stab wound to the chest.

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Police have said three people were in the home with Dodge the night he was stabbed. All three have cooperated with the investigation, according to Maine State Police spokesman Steve McCausland. He said shortly after stabbing that investigators were trying to determine “the sequence of events” that led to James Dodge’s stabbing.

McCausland on Tuesday said only that there have been no new developments in the case.

Dennis Dodge said that the information police have released publicly is virtually all family members have been told. He said he has left at least four messages with police but they have not returned his call.

“The last I heard from them was two days after James was killed,” he said. “They won’t tell us anything. I think they should be doing something and doing it very soon.”

Investigators have said only that James Dodge was stabbed, but Dennis Dodge said the mortician who prepared his son’s body for burial remarked that it was badly bruised, as though James had been beaten.

“They had to put so much makeup on him at the funeral home to cover the bruises,” Dodge said. “He said he did the best he could with what he had to work with.”

McCausland did not respond to an e-mail Tuesday afternoon seeking comment on whether investigators believe James Dodge had been beaten.

Danielle Dodge said most of the information the family has collected has come through the grapevine. The family has used that gossip to try to piece together a picture of what occurred that night; but until they hear it from investigators, they will always wonder what really happened.

“It’s frustrating,” Danielle Dodge said. “There’s no new information. That’s how it’s been since a couple days after it happened.”


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