PORTLAND — Norway resident Kyle Sampson visited 64 Pine St. in the West End for the first time Monday afternoon.

It was not a social visit. He wants to know who killed his father in the block between Brackett and West streets 25 years ago on Nov. 13, 1990.

“This is a murder — it took someone’s life,”  Sampson said after posting fliers with a photo of Scott Sampson and a plea for anyone with information to call city police. “It took something from me I will never be able to have.”

Scott Sampson was 26 when police found his body outside Pine Street Variety (now Aurora Provisions) around 2 a.m. Sampson was declared dead at the scene.

Assistant police Chief Vern Malloch on Nov. 6 said the case is considered a homicide, although there was initial speculation it was a suicide. There were no witnesses, according to investigators.

“This was one of those cases that was frustrating from the beginning,” Malloch said. “There’s a lot of things we look to now we didn’t have then.”

Jim Daniels, who retired from the Police Department in 1998, was the primary detective in the case. He said the investigation was hampered by a lack of people who came forward with information.

“It was late at night; there were not a lot of people around,” Daniels said.

Police have not released many details, including how Sampson died. His family, including his sister, Sandra Hill, said he was stabbed and left to die.

“It is an absolutely mortifying event,” Hill said Nov. 7. “Somebody has not been pinned with this murder. Why?”

Kyle Sampson, now 28, was about 2 when his father was killed. His older brother, Shawn, who lives in Toronto, was 5. Both have worked to keep the investigation in the public eye, ensuring the case was placed on the police website detailing 12 open homicide cases, dating to 1985.

Sampson’s life had not always been easy, both his sister and his friend, Jim Levesque, recalled. Warm-hearted and mischievous, Hill said he would hitchhike from Sanford to Van Buren, north of Orono, to see his children. He once climbed a utility pole to illegally connect cable TV to Hill’s home.

“And then he sat there on the sofa, smiling and watching TV,” she said. “He was a family man; he would walk in and make you laugh and smile. He was one of the kindest people and would do anything for anyone.”

Scott Sampson also drank, which led to legal troubles, including arrests for assaults and disorderly conduct. In the months before his death, he had come to Portland for treatment and to try to straighten out his life.

“He was in a group home and trying to get his ducks in order,” Hill said. “I was his support person. I went in for the family meetings. He had been in treatment — he was trying to be clean.”

Jim Levesque, a longtime friend, agreed with Hill about Sampson’s warmth and love of family.

“He loved his children dearly,” he said. “But I’ve never known alcohol to make someone a better person.”

The last night he was seen alive, Sampson was living on Falmouth Street and had an argument with his then-girlfriend, Daniels said. He left home on his bicycle and ended up on Pine Street. The bicycle was found close to Sampson’s body.

“It was unusual that he was on a bicycle, but not unheard of at that time of year,” Daniels said.

Hill and Daniels stayed in touch, but he had little to report on the case over the years.

“That was very difficult,” Daniels said. “You wanted to have something to tell them and there wasn’t anything there. There was just nothing.” 

Hill said her brother’s homicide devastated their mother, who died in 2011. For Kyle, his father’s death left a hole, no matter how hard his mother, Lisa Maheux, worked to raise him and his brother.

“There were a lot of hard things, like going over to a friend’s house and seeing things they got to do with their father that I didn’t,” Kyle said.

Malloch said the nature of the case makes public input critical if it is to be solved. While detectives review the unsolved cases, and have looked for clues by backtracking through Sampson’s day before his death, new information is needed.

“Somebody knows who did it,” Malloch said.

He said city police will continue to investigate, although the case will not be forwarded to the state cold case unit set up by Attorney General Janet Mills.

Anyone with information about the Sampson case or other unsolved homicides is asked to call police at 874-8533. The department also accepts anonymous tips online at bit.ly/1Wmofpm or texted to 274637, using the keyword “GOTCHA.”

“Anonymous calls go a long way,” Kyle Sampson said. “You don’t have to show your face to help out.”