The off-duty Penobscot County deputy sheriff who was killed Sunday in a snowmobile crash died after he hit a snowdrift that threw him off his machine.
Bobbie Pelletier, 47, was riding his 2019 Arctic Cat Thundercat 9000 on a snowmobile trail on the Loring Air Force Base property in Limestone around 3:15 p.m. Sunday when he was killed.
Pelletier was traveling at a high speed when he died, said Mark Latti, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife
Pelletier was wearing a helmet, and alcohol is not likely a contributing factor, Latti said Friday night.
The Maine Warden Service is still investigating the crash.
Pelletier was transported to Cary Medical Center in Caribou where he was pronounced dead, Latti said.
It took the Warden Service five days to provide the basic information about the crash to the media, a departure from the agency’s usual practice of delivering information on the crashes it investigates within a day and often within hours.
The law enforcement agency released the information around 7 p.m. Friday, after the Bangor Daily News published an article Friday morning on the lack of information surrounding Pelletier’s death.
Pelletier had worked for the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office since 2008. He most recently supervised deputies patrolling the town of Hermon.