DETROIT, Maine — Police continue to investigate the suspicious death of a local man whose body was discovered early Thursday morning in his trailer, Stephen McCausland, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman, said Monday.
“State Police continue to investigate the death, review evidence from the scene and work with the medical examiner’s office,” he said. “Detectives worked on the case through the weekend and that work continues today. There are no new developments.”
The body of Ricky Cole, 47, who lived a year at the residence behind 24 Main St., was found after his neighbor called police at about 3 a.m. Thursday requesting a welfare check.
An autopsy was conducted at the medical examiner’s office in Augusta on Friday, but no conclusions, including if the death is considered a homicide, have been released, McCausland said shortly after noon, reversing a statement he said earlier about the autopsy being completed.
“The cause of death still being worked on by the ME [medical examiner],” he said in a 12:45 p.m. email.
A message left for the medical examiner was not immediately returned on Monday.
On the day Cole’s body was found, evidence team members placed a number of evidence flags on the driveway near the home and took pictures of them, which indicates there may have been a trail of blood. Detectives also brought in a K-9 unit to search the area and interviewed people on Dogtown Road in Palmyra, but have not said what they have found.
Before moving to Detroit, Cole — who was no stranger to police — lived in Newport and Rochester, N.H., according to police records.
Earlier this year, he was convicted of misdemeanor criminal threatening, according to a background check, and was arrested by the Skowhegan Police Department on June 24 on an outstanding warrant issued for failing to appear in court to face another criminal threatening charge, according to the Somerset County Jail intake log.
Lt. Chris Coleman, who leads the state police Major Crimes Unit’s north division, is leading the suspicious death investigation.
The mobile home is set back from the road and is located across the street from the Detroit post office. A neighbor who asked not to be identified said she was awake at 3 a.m. because of the heat and thought she heard fireworks early in the morning.