Court documents released in the murder case against Kyle Dube, 20, of Orono, show communications he had with 15-year-old Nichole Cable, of Glenburn, in the minutes before he allegedly abducted her, including his assurances that she had nothing to worry about.

Cellphone text messages just minutes before Cable disappeared on Mother’s Day indicate she thought she was meeting a young man named Bryan Butterfield to smoke and obtain marijuana, according to the search warrant affidavit released Thursday. Facebook records indicate Dube was pretending to be Butterfield, according to a police affidavit prepared by Maine State Police Detective Christopher Tupper on May 21 that was submitted in support of search warrants in the case.

Cable sent a text to Dube at 9 p.m., about the time she left her house, ostensibly to get some cigarettes from a friend. She asked him whether she should be nervous about meeting with Butterfield, the affidavit said.

Dube replied that she should not be worried, the affidavit said. “But I swear if he tried anything, I’ll stab him. That makes me seem crazy or something,” she texted to Dube.

“Just remember to call me or anything if you need me,” he responded.

“Alright, I will. Is it weird to be a little scared?” she wrote.

“No, I wouldn’t be,” he wrote back.

“Alright.”

Dube’s last communication with Cable was at 9:43 p.m., about the time she disappeared.

Police believe Dube kidnapped and killed Cable that night.

The affidavit describes how Cable’s best friend, Haleigh Robertson, contacted Cable’s mother, Kristine Wiley, at 8 a.m. May 13 to say she couldn’t reach Cable and that her cellphone had been turned off, which Cable would not do.

The last text Robertson received from Cable indicated Cable was meeting someone at the base of the road she lived on.

“Bryan is coming to my house, I said its one of corey’s friends, james cause we’ll be outside in his car,” the text, sent at 9:18 p.m. May 12, read.

Police later tried to locate Cable using her cellphone, but the technology required that the phone be turned on, and they were unable to locate it.

A police affidavit submitted in support of search warrants for Dube’s property and computer records in the case show police believe there was a foot chase and a struggle at the end of Cable’s driveway, where they say Dube abducted her May 12. They found one of Cable’s shoes and a knit winter hat with an eye hole cut in it that had Dube’s DNA on it. They found Cable’s other shoe on the opposite side of the road. Police said Dube had scratches on his face when they interviewed him that he said came from a client at the Getchell Agency, an agency for people with disabilities, where he works.

In another exchange of text messages, Cable sent a text to Dube at 8:30 a.m. the day she disappeared, saying that he had left a bite mark on her the night before, the affidavit said.

He apologized and she responded, “It’s fine.” She texted her boyfriend a few minutes later saying that Dube had been “trying to kiss and grope” her the night before, that he wouldn’t stop despite her trying to push him off and that he left a bite mark on her, according to the affidavit.

When questioned by police, Dube said Cable bit him and he bit her back the night before she disappeared.

Police interviewed the real Bryan Butterfield, who police said was not involved in Cable’s disappearance. Butterfield said he suspected the person pretending to be him was Dube and that Dube wanted to have sex with Cable but she had rejected his advances, the affidavit said.

During the investigation, police recovered from a ditch a couple miles away from where Cable disappeared a pink sweatshirt they think she was wearing that night. The sweatshirt had been cut or torn down the front and one sleeve was inside out. They also recovered a length of black rope they suspect was used to abduct her.

A jogger alreted investigators on May 17 to the presence of the items.

Robertson told police the Victoria Secret “Pink” pullover sweatshirt was hers but that she and Cable often swapped clothing. An earlier affidavit submitted to justify arresting Dube on a murder charge said that Dube told his brother Dustin that he waited in the bushes at the end of Spruce Lane, then jumped out and grabbed Cable, restrained her with duct tape and put her into the back of his father’s pickup.

The affidavit said that Dube told his brother he had planned to kidnap Cable and pretend to come to her rescue so he would be seen as a hero.

Dube told his brother that when he checked on her in the back of the truck later, she was dead, according to the affidavit. Dube told his brother he then hid Cable’s body in some woods in Old Town.

Dube told his girlfriend that he threw Cable’s clothes out the truck window as he drove, according to the affidavit.

Police also seized a pair of pants from Dube’s house, from his brother’s room, that appeared to have a blood stain on them. However, the affidavit said police had not determined for certain if the reddish-brown stain was human blood and if so, whom it came from. The newly released court papers also show that when questioned by police, Dube said he had gone straight home from work before 10 p.m. and stayed with his girlfriend. However, his girlfriend contradicted that account, saying he did not pick her up until 11 p.m.

The search warrants were aimed at obtaining computer and social networking site information as well as biological and other evidence from the home where Dube lived with his parents and brother in Orono, as well as his father’s pickup. Police say Dube was driving the pickup that night and told police he had cleaned it two days after Cable disappeared.

The warrants also sought the contents of a camera found with clothing Dube had left at work.

Computers were key to police locking on to Dube as a suspect within a couple days of Cable’s disappearance even though he was not arrested and charged until May 21.

The person posing as Bryan Butterfield asked Cable to meet at the end of her road, about 100 yards from her house,

The Internet account used to log into the fake Facebook account was shut down May 14. The account showed it was linked to an account owned by Dube’s father. Kyle Dube lived with his parents on Maplewood Street in Orono.

The last four digits of the phone used to disable the fake Facebook account are the same as Dube’s phone, the affidavit said.

Dube has been held without bail since his arrest on charges of kidnapping and murder.

David Hench — 791-6327
dhench@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @Mainehenchman