Sebago, Maine — You know you’re in Maine when the pancakes come hot off a 100-year-old wood stove. But drill into Alan Greene’s eighth-generation maple syrup operation in the town of Sebago, and you’ll find it doesn’t run as smoothly as it used to.
“The last 10 years, we are definitely becoming warmer earlier,” said Greene, who runs Greene Maple Farms. “We’re not getting the cold and the gradual warm-up. We’re getting warm-up, warm-up, warm-up, with deep freezes in between.”
It’s been a cold winter in Maine so far this year. But across the country, over time, climate change has warmed winters by an average of 4 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the nonprofit Climate Central.
The coldest parts of the country are warming the fastest. Portland, Maine, now experiences 22 more warm winter days — classified as temperatures above normal — that in it did in 1970, per Climate Central.
This means the sap flows much earlier, and gets boiled earlier, than what Greene’s father recorded in his annual syrup log when he ran operations.
“So in 1971, the year I was born…the first time he boiled, was March 21st,” Greene explained. “We’ve finished our season on March 21st some years now…he was just starting.”
Maple syrup is America’s original sweetener. European settlers learned to collect it from Native Americans. It’s a practice that goes back centuries. But now, within a span of decades, it’s all changing for the $1.5 billion industry.
Projections show the prime range of sugar maple habitat shifting northward, where it is cooler. Jason Lilley, a professor of sustainable agriculture at the University of Maine, says the state’s maple trees are “absolutely” under stress from climate change.
“I just don’t want producers to be going out of business, and to see this industry start to decline,” Lilley said. “We can’t just sit around and watch this happen.”
Instead, Lilley says, some producers are exploring different varieties of trees and actively thinning their forests, which gives trees more space to grow. They are also using plastic tubing and vacuum systems that are always on standby for early flowing sap.
Producers, like Greene, agree using technology to adapt to the ongoing changes might help maple syrup production to continue in the state.
“The technology has come about while climate change has been pushing us, and they’re a good blend,” Greene said. “They’re working together. I think we need to be paying attention and be prepared for it. For those who aren’t, I think it’s gonna cost them down the road.”
David Schechter is a national environmental correspondent and the host of “On the Dot with David Schechter,” a guided journey to explore how we’re changing the earth and earth is changing us.
A Russian bride-to-be was found dead 5,500 miles from home. Investigators would soon learn Anna Repkina was unwittingly caught up in a love triangle and that her fiancé frantically researched time travel after her death, writing to strangers on WhatsApp: “… best friend made a mistake. I want to go back to keep from losing the woman that should be my wife.”
Will Hargrove and Anna Repkina met online and after a whirlwind romance, the pair got engaged. What Repkina didn’t know when she relocated to the U.S. from Russia to marry Hargrove was that she was moving right into the middle of a love triangle.
Benton County Sheriff’s Office
In 2016, Repkina was a 26-year-old Moscow native who loved rock music and cats and had a fun sense of humor. She had recently gone through a breakup with her boyfriend of seven years. In search of love, she decided to join some online dating sites. She thought she’d found what she was looking for when she met William Hargrove, a 26-year-old Oregonian who happened to have an affinity for all things Russian.
Their online relationship quickly took off, and Repkina decided to fly to the United States to meet her new love interest in person and spend the Christmas holidays with him in Oregon. After a whirlwind 10-day trip, Repkina returned to Russia with a souvenir — an engagement ring from Hargrove. She made plans to pack up her life in Russia, move to Oregon, and plan a wedding.
What Repkina wasn’t planning on was meeting Hargrove’s secret girlfriend.
Will Hargrove was dating Michelle Chavez the whole time he’d been romancing Anna Repkina.
Benton County Sheriff’s Office
When Repkina first met Hargrove, he was renting a room from a woman named Michelle Chavez, who was living with her husband in a loveless marriage. Unbeknownst to Repkina, Hargrove and Chavez were involved in a passionate affair even before she came to the states. Hargrove and Chavez continued their relationship after Hargrove’s proposal to Repkina, and when Repkina moved to Oregon to marry Hargrove, Chavez was shocked, and very angry.
Chavez wanted Hargrove to only be with her, and pressured him to end his relationship with Repkina. She issued an ultimatum — to choose between her and Repkina. Within days, Repkina was dead.
The day after Easter 2017, Repkina’s body was found on a remote logging road in Alsea, Oregon. She had been killed by a single shotgun blast to the back of the head. But who pulled the trigger?
That’s the question the lead detective, Lieutenant Chris Duffitt, was trying to answer when he first arrived on the scene. “We found several pieces of trash,” said Duffitt. “Fast food bags, cigarette cartons, candy wrappers that were here. And at that point, we don’t know what’s evidence and what’s not.”
A crucial clue: a KFC receipt found with other trash near Anna Repkina’s body led investigators to her fiancé, Will Hargrove.
Benton County Sheriff’s Office
One of the pieces of trash turned out to be a treasure. Investigators were able to trace the information found on a KFC receipt back to Will Hargrove.
In the days after Repkina’s death, Hargrove exhibited some rather peculiar behavior.
Hargrove went on a bizarre internet deep dive. “He is researching time travel,” said Detective Chris Dale. “He’s saved screenshots of web pages that show you how to do a particular spell to travel back in time. And we also see communication through WhatsApp in which he is trying to ask for help in how to travel back in time.” Hargrove said he wanted to correct a horrible mistake that his “best friend” made. He was so desperate to get this information on time travel that he offered his soul as a reward to strangers on the internet who might be able to help him.
Will Hargrove was caught on video surveillance at various ATM’s dispensing cash from Anna Repkina’s account
Benton County Sheriff’s Office
In addition to his strange internet encounters, Hargrove was caught on video surveillance at various ATM’s withdrawing cash from Repkina’s account. “He made a $200 withdrawal from this machine, and then engaged in some conversation with some employees at that gas station, where he actually ended up hugging one of them and crying about the fact that his girlfriend, Anna Repkina, had left him,” said Duffitt.
Hargrove withdrew a total of $800 from Repkina’s account. With a sudden influx of cash, he made a car insurance payment, went shopping at Walmart for Star Wars themed LEGOs, and bought candy and cigars.
After connecting Hargrove to the crime scene through the KFC receipt, investigators brought Hargrove in for questioning and ultimately charged him with Repkina’s murder. The trash left near Repkina’s body, Hargrove’s strange internet encounters, and theft caught on camera led Hargrove to be formally indicted for his fiancée’s murder in July 2018.
But when Hargrove’s trial began in October 2019, the defense would spin an entirely new theory as to what happened to Repkina.
EDITOR’S NOTE: On October 2019, Hargrove was was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years. His murder conviction was overturned on appeal in 2023. The reversal was based on a flawed search warrant and the improper collection of some evidence. A new trial is set to begin in April 2025.
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