LINCOLN, Maine - About 200 people, including Gov. John Baldacci, paid last respects to a 24-year-old Air Force enlisted man whose body was found early this month in a West Texas pond, an apparent homicide victim.

Staff Sgt. Michael Leslie Severance was buried with full military honors Thursday in Carroll Plantation, near the fields where he played as a boy.

Severance’s body was found March 6 at the bottom of a San Angelo pond, weighted down with cinder blocks. His wife, Wendi Davidson, reported him missing on Jan. 16. Texas officials termed the case a homicide but have yet to release the cause of death.

Davidson, 26, of San Angelo, was charged March 5 with tampering with evidence for hiding her husband’s body and was ordered held on $50,000 bond.

According to police, she told her brother she had found her husband dead in bed on Jan. 15 and feared that someone in her family had killed him.

Davidson married Severance in September. Severance’s family said it planned to seek custody of the couple’s 5-month-old son.

Severance, a Lee native who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was stationed at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas.

During a service at Clay Funeral Home, Severance was remembered by his younger brother Frank as a zestful and dedicated downhill skier, long-distance runner, hunter, stock-car racer, fisherman and military man who excelled at facing down his fears.

Baldacci presented Leslie Severance, Michael’s father, with a state flag that flew over the state Capitol at half-staff in Severance’s honor. The governor also ordered flags flown at half-staff in Carroll Plantation, Lee and Lincoln.

"Maine is a small state in terms of population," Baldacci said, "and we’re all very close to one another. When we lose someone like this, we all feel it."

Severance’s commanding officer with the 317th Airlift Maintenance Squadron, Maj. William Walker, came from Texas to present Severance with a posthumous Commendation Medal for Meritorious Service, which he presented to Leslie Severance.

"When we needed a flying crew chief to go on a mission, he was always ready to step up and take care of business," Walker said.

The subject of Severance’s death came up only indirectly when Frank Severance told the congregation that they do not know, and may never learn, why Severance died, "but God does not give us anything we can’t handle."

"It seems really hard right now, but if we remember Mike for the joyous stories we can tell, we can get through this," he said.