Luc Tieman was angry.
In late August, a friend had told his wife, Valerie Tieman, that her husband was having an affair. The friend, Torie York of Waterville, says Luc Tieman had also been hitting on her while suggesting that he and his wife were thinking of divorcing.
Valerie Tieman, skeptical at first, eventually came to believe York about the affair. Soon afterward, Luc Tieman angrily texted York: “Why did you do this to me? I just calmed her down.”
Some three weeks later, police now allege that Luc Tieman killed his wife, charging him Wednesday with murder a day after finding her body in the woods near a Fairfield home where the couple lived.
The incident involving York happened days before Valerie Tieman, 34, first reportedly disappeared, when her husband claims she vanished from his truck in a store parking lot. York’s statements in an interview Wednesday are among a string of emerging allegations from friends that Luc Tieman was unfaithful to Valerie and wooed other women even as he suggested his marriage was ending. One woman said Luc Tieman intensely courted her exactly around the time Valerie reportedly disappeared.
Tieman, 32, of 628 Norridgewock Road, Fairfield, was arrested at about 10 a.m. Wednesday and charged with murder, Steve McCausland, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety, said in a news release.
Detectives arrested Tieman along Kennedy Memorial Drive in Waterville, near where he stayed Tuesday night in a motel, McCausland said in the release. Tieman did not resist arrest and was taken to the Kennebec County jail, McCausland said, though Tieman was later transferred to the Somerset County Jail in East Madison and booked there.
Tuesday afternoon, outside the Tieman home as state police and game wardens worked at the scene, McCausland would say only that a female body was found near the home, but the body was identified Wednesday as that of Valerie Tieman. An autopsy was underway Wednesday at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta, and results weren’t available yet.
Luc Tieman had previously told authorities he last saw his wife on Aug. 30, saying they went to Wal-Mart in Skowhegan. He told police he went into the store and Valerie stayed behind in his truck but was gone when he returned from the store. However, Luc Tieman did not report her missing.
Valerie Tieman’s parents, who live in South Carolina and couldn’t be reached for comment on Tuesday or Wednesday, reported their daughter missing to the Fairfield Police Department on Sept. 9. Luc Tieman’s father, Alan Tieman, did not return an email requesting comment.
According to Luc Tieman’s Facebook page, he attended Messalonskee High School in Oakland and was formerly in the U.S. Army.
A statewide criminal records check shows that Tieman was incarcerated for 48 hours and paid $100 in restitution for criminal mischief in 2014.
In several Facebook messages to a Morning Sentinel reporter from Thursday through Monday, Luc Tieman said his wife had “run off” before — though he wouldn’t elaborate further — and he was not mad at her, but just wanted her back.
Those who knew Valerie Tieman said Wednesday they were shocked by her death and the news that her husband is charged with her murder.
Emily Rowden Fournier, 28, of Fairfield, said she had heard news Tuesday that a body was found and hoped that it was not Valerie. Fournier said she had last seen her Aug. 9 when Valerie came to Fournier’s home and trimmed her hair for her.
“These are people we had dinner parties with, who came over to our house and hung out with for birthday parties,” Fournier said Wednesday. “On one hand it’s like confirming a certain part you started to speculate about, and obviously this was one of the speculations but you always hope it’s not true.”
Fournier, whose family runs the Recycled Shakespeare Co., based in Fairfield, had played a sister to Valerie Tieman’s character in “The Comedy of Errors,” and from then on, they called each other “sister.” Valerie was to have played the lead female role in “Titus Andronicus” with the troupe but never picked up her script at Fournier’s home or attended rehearsals as planned, according to Fournier. She said she can not believe what has happened in her hometown with people she knows.
“It’s so surreal in a terrifying way. I wish there was a way to turn back time and prevent it from happening.”
THE COUPLE
Valerie Harmon and Luc Tieman were married two years ago in South Carolina, where her parents, Allen and Sarajean Harmon, live, according to Fournier.
Valerie Tieman’s Facebook page shows a photograph of her in a long white gown and him in his U.S. Army uniform on their wedding day, gazing into each other’s eyes.
Fournier said Luc Tieman is a U.S. Army veteran who is disabled and suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I knew that they had met when he was still in the military, because they would Skype,” Fournier recalled Wednesday. “I don’t know how they met, but when he was in the military she would sing to him on Skype or over the phone. She would sing ‘Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again’ from ‘The Phantom of the Opera.’ It was like their song. When we would go out to sing karaoke at Mainely Brews in Waterville on Thursdays, she would sing that and dedicate it to him every time.
“Her voice was a very sweet, pretty voice, like an angel.”
Fournier said she did not know Luc Tieman prior to his being in the military. She met the Tiemans when they moved to Waterville in May 2015, and the couple lived in an apartment on Quarry Road, she said. The Tiemans spent part of their time in South Carolina and part in Maine and, according to a woman who lives across the street from the Tieman family in Fairfield, had moved into Luc Tieman’s parents’ house on Norridgewock Road in Fairfield early this past summer.
Fournier said she does not believe Valerie Tieman worked out of the home in recent months but at one time was a housekeeper for Faith Evangelical Free Church in Waterville, which the Tiemans attended.
Bill Cripe, pastor of the church, declined to comment Wednesday on the Tieman case.
But Tammy Brown, who attends the church, said last week that while the search for Valerie was ongoing, Valerie and Luc Tieman seemed like a wonderful couple and appeared very happy together.
“We weren’t close, but she was a sweet, sweet girl and gorgeous,” Brown said.
A DARK SIDE
But Luc Tieman seemingly had a dark side.
Torie York of Waterville said he stalked her for months, trying to get her to go out with him, but she refused, telling him he was married and had a nice wife.
“He was, like, following me around, calling my kids and sending my kids money,” York, 39, said Wednesday. “He was just weird, and I kept telling my sister-in-law I have a bad feeling about this guy.”
York said she met Luc Tieman last winter through a mutual friend; she also met Valerie Tieman.
“He and she friended me on Facebook,” York said.
She added that she saw Luc Tieman again at her friend’s house, his wife was not with him, and he was acting strange.
“He was hitting on me,” York said. “He was telling me how beautiful I was, but it was the same type of thing he would say to his wife. Then he started texting my kids. He was trying to buy things for my kids to get to me.”
For several months he would send messages via Facebook and text York, sometimes all night long, she said, even though she made it clear she would not go out with him because he was married and she knew his wife.
“His messages were, like, nonstop,” York said. “He basically chased anything that would give in to him. I don’t even know why he kept talking to me so long. He just kept saying how beautiful I was and how I reminded him of his wife and how his wife was a model.”
York said she was afraid of Luc, particularly after she learned a body had been found on his parents’ property, and she was concerned he would target her for telling his wife about his affair.
“I’ve been hiding out the last couple of days. I thought he’d come out after me,” she said.
When York learned later that he was having an affair with a woman she knows, York notified Valerie Tieman on Aug. 25, she said.
“I just told his wife, I’m like, I hate to tell you this.’ I don’t believe in (affairs). I was raised better. Luc came off as such a church-going person. Then he was, like, me and my wife are thinking about getting a divorce.”
At first, Valerie Tieman was skeptical and asked York if she was trying to ruin her marriage by telling her that her husband was having an affair, but she eventually believed her, according to York. Luc Tieman later texted York, angry she had told Valerie about the affair, York said Wednesday.
“He texted me, ‘Why did you do this to me? I just calmed her down,'” York recalled.
‘THINGS WERE TOO PERFECT’
Meanwhile, Billi-Jo Goodwin, of Norridgewock, said Wednesday she was taken by Luc Tieman’s charms — hook, line and sinker.
Goodwin, 38, said Wednesday that she met him in late August, around the time he reported he last saw his wife, Valerie. Others on Wednesday confirmed Goodwin’s connection to Tieman.
He knew Goodwin’s niece — the Goodwin and Tieman families knew one another — and Goodwin and Luc Tieman started chatting on Facebook, according to Goodwin. Goodwin said she wrote on Facebook Aug. 26 that she and her niece were at the municipal pool on North Street in Waterville, and Luc Tieman saw her post and just showed up at the pool.
He wooed Goodwin and won her over, telling her that his wife, Valerie, had “run off with another guy,” Goodwin said.
“He started coming over all the time. I’ve never had somebody treat me so nice in my life — like, perfect. He was a little touchy-feely and I’m not touchy-feely. He bought my kids a Vision 3, X-box I and a four-wheeler. My boys don’t like just anybody, and they really liked him a lot.”
Goodwin, who works two jobs — at a doughnut shop and a funeral home — said she has five children, including two boys, 14 and 15, who live with her, and a daughter, 21, who also lives with her. Her other children are grown.
She said she has been single for four years and dated occasionally, but no one interested her as much as Luc Tieman did. They both had attended Temple Academy in Waterville at different times as she was older than he.
Goodwin recently spoke with police detectives who told her Luc Tieman had a history of domestic violence and she should stay away from him, so while she stayed in touch with him, she asked him to stay away until the investigation of his wife’s disappearance was completed, she said. Tieman had given some knives to her boys, and she gave them to the detectives, she said.
“He texted me last night on Facebook that he missed my boys and that kids never let go of him and saying he loved me. He never came across as upset or angry. I never saw him in a bad mood. I never would have guessed. Even when they found the body, I thought it must have been an accident. Luc told me last night that it was a drug overdose. He said, ‘I don’t want to ruin her reputation.'”
Goodwin said she thinks of herself as a careful person — an informed person — yet she still fell for Luc Tieman’s charms.
“I don’t think I’m ever dating again, honestly. This has just been horrific, like the most horrible thing in the world. I can’t get my brain around it. I thought I did my homework. I always told everybody I had a gut feeling something wasn’t right. I don’t mean murder. Things were too perfect, too nice, so nice to me and so nice to the kids.”
Goodwin said she even told Luc Tieman that she was uneasy about how perfect he was.
“He said that he wanted me to be able to live a fairy tale and nothing was wrong,” she said.
He gave her daughters presents, even going to a store to buy a pregnant daughter prenatal vitamins, according to Goodwin.
“My son cut his toe and Luc bought tape and bandages — more than my son needed. One time I mentioned that I needed eyeliner, and he went out and bought two and dropped them off to me at work.”
Goodwin said that Luc Tieman had a significant dent in his head that church members said was from a mortar attack in Iraq and that he suffered brain damage as a result. After that, he always wore a hat, she said.
“He did two or three tours in Iraq. He got injured the last time and that’s how he had money. He got, like, $4,500 a month.”
SENDING MESSAGES
Around 7 a.m. Wednesday, before police arrested Luc Tieman in Waterville and charged him with murder, his mother messaged Goodwin to say she was taking him to Togus VA Medical Center in Augusta to see a crisis counselor, according to Goodwin.
Meanwhile, Goodwin said she would warn others that if a love interest appears too good to be true, take notice. She shudders to think about what might have happened had their relationship progressed.
“It could easily have been me, if she had never been found,” she said.
She has a lot of questions about Luc Tieman, including why he wanted to get involved with her.
“I’m wondering, if he has so much brain damage, he doesn’t have remorse? He was completely normal. You don’t go out and buy toys for kids if you have just killed your wife. My son is having a wicked hard time with this. He never tells me he loves me, and he’s been hugging me and telling me he treasures me.”
In many Facebook messages exchanged between a Morning Sentinel reporter and Luc Tieman between Thursday and Monday, he wrote that Valerie Tieman told him she had another man but would not name him. He wrote that her last relationship was abusive “and she carried a lot of baggage I’ve helped her overcome or so I thought.”
He claimed Valerie had cancer seven times in her previous marriage “because she was so unhappy she just shut down she said. Then I saved her and she never got sick again.”
On his own Facebook page, which was taken down Wednesday, Tieman wrote multiple messages last week defending himself, apparently saying he didn’t report her missing because he assumed she had gone to be with another man or her parents, and he didn’t want to “bad mouth” her.
He agreed to meet a Morning Sentinel reporter and photographer for an in-person interview late Monday afternoon, but insisted it be on Norridgewock Road because he did not want people at his parents’ house.
“Do you have $5 I could have? Lok (sic) Lol. It’s hard living and we are broke,” he wrote.
He put off the interview at the last minute, saying his family members discouraged him, but that he would do the interview when he is ready.
“I just want her found,” he wrote.
Forty-eight hours later, he was in jail, charged with Valerie’s murder.
Amy Calder — 861-9247
Twitter: @AmyCalder17
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