Three arrested in death of mom found in pond

In a criminal complaint and in court Wednesday, investigators and prosecutors outlined a plot by Papile and Petelis to ambush the 20-year-old Portland woman to steal drugs and money from her. The officials said:

Dittmeyer was lured to Petelis' Ossipee home on April 22. Soon after she arrived around 9:45 p.m., Papile ambushed her as she climbed the stairs to the apartment, striking her on the head with a rubber club.

Papile and Petelis bound her with duct tape and put her in the trunk of her own car. Papile drove Dittmeyer's car to the Cranmore Mountain ski area parking lot and put Dittmeyer in the pond.

Ferguson agreed to give Papile a ride to his home from the ski area in exchange for money and drugs.

Prosecutors would not say Wednesday whether Dittmeyer was alive when she was submerged in the pond.

$250,000 bail
Papile, Petelis and Ferguson were not required to enter pleas Wednesday. Each was represented by a court-appointed attorney who didn't speak to the media.

Papile was ordered held without bail, while Petelis and Ferguson were held on $250,000 bail.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Jane Young told the judge Petelis was a friend of Dittmeyer's who told others he was her "protector" while her boyfriend — the father of her daughter — was serving an 18-month sentence in Maine for cocaine trafficking.

Young said Petelis lured her to the apartment "and was setting up her final demise."

"If he can do this to his friend and woman he vowed to protect, what could he do to anyone else?" Young stated, in arguing for a $250,000 bond.

Dittmeyer's daughter is now being cared for by her grandmother.

Superior Court Judge Robert C. Varney cited the "heinous nature of the crime" in holding Papile without bond. He scheduled probable cause hearings for all three May 19.