SCARBOROUGH (May 5, 2005): A Scarborough teenager accused of trying to kill a friend in the woods behind the Scarborough Public Library appeared in court last week to hear the charges against her.
Lyndsey McLaughlin, 15, was charged last month with two Class A felonies: attempted murder and elevated aggravated assault. Police believe she stabbed Barbara Kring, 20, also of Scarborough, in the neck and stomach March 8.
McLaughlin then stabbed herself in the abdomen, according to Scarborough police. Both young women were taken to Maine Medical Center, where they were treated and later released.
At her court hearing April 25, McLaughlin heard the charges against her, but did not enter a plea, according to court documents. McLaughlin has been charged as a juvenile because she has no prior criminal record, according to District Attorney Stephanie Anderson.
McLaughlin, a freshman at Scarborough High School, has been at home since her release from the hospital, and school officials have said they are working with the family to prepare for her return to school. Her next court date is set for July 11.
Kring, a 2004 Scarborough High School graduate, was a student at Southern Maine Community College, but left the school following the attack. She and her mother have said she intends to return to the college in the fall.
Kring recently published a first-person account of the attack in the SMCC student newspaper, The Beacon, where she was a staff writer.
McLaughlin’s family declined to comment on the incident or Kring’s account.