BANGOR (AP) – An Augusta man was charged with murder Thursday for allegedly abducting and killing his 74-year-old mother-in-law before stabbing himself with a knife, police said.

Maine State Police arrested David Grant, 54, as he was being discharged from Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

Grant was to be held at the Kennebec County Jail in Augusta while awaiting an appearance Friday in Augusta District Court.

Police said Grant abducted Janet Hagerthy from her Farmingdale home Tuesday evening and killed her. The medical examiner has ruled “multiple traumatic injuries” as the cause of death.

Grant was found early Wednesday morning in his pickup truck off Route 2 in Palmyra with the self-inflicted stab wound. Hagerthy’s body was found by a passer-by later that morning a couple of blocks from her home.

Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the state Public Safety Department, said he wouldn’t talk about a possible motive or evidence that has been gathered.

“We’re not getting into the circumstances or details that will come out in the judicial proceedings that will follow,” he said.

Grant, formerly of Ellsworth and a self-employed carpenter, made headlines when he attacked his estranged wife in July 1987.

He was accused of trying to suffocate Nancy Grant with a plastic bag and trying to drown her by holding her head under water, the Bangor Daily News reported. She also was sexually assaulted during the attack.

Grant was indicted on 14 counts, including attempted murder, and ended up pleading guilty to aggravated assault and two counts of gross sexual misconduct.

He was sentenced to 13 years in prison with all but eight years suspended.

Janet Hagerthy and her daughter Cindy, who later married Grant, had known Grant since his childhood in the Ellsworth area, the newspaper said.