A woman murdered inside a home on Kennebec Road in Hampden on Friday died of multiple gunshot wounds, authorities said.
An autopsy conducted by the chief medical examiner in Augusta on Saturday identified the cause of death, but authorities are still working to confirm her identity, a process delayed by the nature of some of her injuries, according Lt. Troy Gardner of the Maine State Police. Police did not say how many times or where she was shot.
The woman’s body was found inside her apartment building at 557 Kennebec Road, the building where her alleged killer, Philip Clark, 55, also lives.
Clark was arrested Friday morning and charged with murder, but police have not described a possible motive for the shooting or the nature of the relationship between Clark and his alleged victim.
Clark has a criminal history in Maine that dates back to 1982, including charges for public indecency, assault and carrying a concealed weapon. Most recently, he was charged on June 15 for criminal trespass.
Maine State Police detectives on Friday blocked off the scene of the crime, a worn-down apartment complex at the juncture of Kennebec Road and Monroe roads, and only allowed residents back inside on Saturday afternoon, police said.
The State Police Major Crimes Unit continues to investigate the case and is working with the medical examiner’s office to positively identify the homicide victim over the next few days, Gardner said.
Clark is currently being held at the Penobscot County Jail and is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Monday at the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor, police said. It is expected that a judge will order him to be held without bail, as is customary for those charged with murder.
The last homicide in Hampden happened almost exactly six years ago, when 53-year-old Lawrence Beaute shot his girlfriend, Katherine Hunt, also 53, in their Marina Road home, and then called 911 to report the killing. The call prompted a six-hour standoff with police before Beaute eventually turned the gun on himself. Police called the July 2012 murder-suicide “a domestic violence homicide.”
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