Police in Georgia have arrested the son of man found slain with his common-law wife Tuesday in Zephyrhills, Fla.

Kyle Thomas, 27, was picked up late last week by police in Villarica, Ga., while talking on the telephone with Zephyrhills police.

While he hasn’t been charged, “We consider Kyle as a suspect” in the double homicide, said Zephyrhills police Chief Russ Barnes in a statement issued Sunday evening.

Thomas is the son of Craig Thomas. The 54-year-old was found slain in a Zephyrhills home Tuesday morning along with his common-law spouse, Irene “Rita” Martin, 45.

Martin has a sister in Otisfield. She formerly lived in Auburn and Lewiston, according to a niece, Lindy Williams of Lisbon.

Barnes had earlier called Kyle Thomas “a person of interest” in the case. The younger Thomas had lived with his father and Martin for a time leading up to the murders.

“He could be a suspect, or he could be a victim,” Barnes had said last week.

A nationwide “stop and hold” was sent to law enforcement agencies by Zephyrhills police, who also issued a bulletin for the younger Thomas’ car. The car was impounded in Villarica and is being hauled back to Florida to be examined by crime scene technicians, police said.

Zephyrhills police had called their counterparts in Villarica while Thomas was on the telephone to the Florida police department. They arrested him on an outstanding warrant while Thomas was still speaking with a detective in Florida.

He is being held at the Bartow County Jail in Georgia on a probation violation stemming from an earlier marijuana-related charge.

Police said Thomas has no violent crimes listed in his criminal history.

Zephyrhills police drove to Georgia over the weekend to interview Thomas. Barnes declined to discuss specifics of what police were told during that interview.

Williams, the Lisbon woman who said that Rita Martin was her aunt, said, “She raised me. She’s like a mother to me.”

Williams said she had visited with Martin and Craig Thomas several years ago, and had been planning to visit them again this winter.

Martin and Thomas met in Maine while Thomas was in the Twin Cities area working. They “fell in love and moved together to Florida” in 1998, Williams said.

“She was a wonderful person,” she said of Martin, and “he was a really nice guy.”