CARIBOU, Maine — Maine State Police and the state fire marshal’s office are investigating the suspicious death of a man found Thursday night inside a burning house on Lyndon Street, according to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
“It’s [a] homicide,” McCausland said Friday night.
An autopsy was conducted Friday by the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta, McCausland said. He declined to say what was the cause or manner of the man’s death.
McCausland also said the occupant of the house has not been accounted for and that the victim has yet to be positively identified. DNA testing is expected to be conducted early next week.
McCausland said that an informational roadblock was conducted around 6 p.m. Friday in an effort to find passers-by who might have seen someone entering or leaving the residence around the time of the fire.
Caribou firefighters went to the house at 5 Lower Lyndon St. just before 10 p.m. and found the body, McCausland said early Friday afternoon.
Lily Searles, a neighbor on a nearby street, said Friday afternoon that her husband, Wendall, saw a vehicle leave the residence shortly before the fire.
“Someone drove their truck in the driveway, left their lights on, and my husband said it looked like they might have walked in the house,” Searles said. “They were only there for a minute and then they got back in the truck, made a U-turn, and drove off. There were flames blowing out of the windows not too long after that.
“My husband looked out the window and said, ‘Holy cow, that’s a big ball of flame,’” she said.
Searles said she and her husband related to investigators what they had seen.
Searles said she has known the resident of the house for years.
“He was working for a farmer from 6 in the morning until 6 at night when this happened,” Searles said. “He worked the fall harvest just about every year since I’ve known him. I couldn’t say a bad thing about him; he’d do anything for you.”
Fire damage to the home was confined to the interior, according to McCausland.
Fire and police investigators, including some from the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit, were at the house Friday afternoon, with that section of Lyndon Street blocked off and officers keeping the public away from the property.
McCausland said state police and fire investigators are working with Caribou police. The investigation will continue through the weekend, he said.
Anyone who may have seen or heard anything suspicious around the time of the fire or who has information about the homicide is asked to call the state police barracks in Houlton at 532-5400.
BDN writers Dawn Gagnon and Christopher Bouchard contributed to this report.
