NEWRY – Christian C. Nielsen’s reasons for allegedly killing a man and three women during the Labor Day weekend may not be formally revealed until next week, according to his attorney.

Ron Hoffman of Rumford met with Nielsen on Wednesday at the Oxford County Jail in Paris and later said he will release information about the motive within the next week.

Nielsen’s father, Charles Nielsen, of Woodstock was with Hoffman during the meeting at the jail but declined comment on his son’s case.

Autopsies performed on the bodies Wednesday revealed no surprises. The three women killed at the Black Bear Bed and Breakfast in Newry were shot dead, according to the Maine Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Each of the bodies was then dismembered.

Julie Bullard, 65, was the owner of the business; her daughter, Selby Bullard, 30, lived with her mother; and Cynthia Beatson, 43, of Bethel, was there with Selby, her best friend and co-worker at Apple Tree Realty in Bethel.

Nielsen was renting a room at the bed and breakfast on Sunday River Road at the time of the slayings, officials said.

The remains of a man believed to be 50-year-old James Whitehurst of Batesville, Ark., who also had been staying temporarily at the establishment where he had once lived, were retrieved from a wooded area off Campbell Brook Road in Upton.

Officials at the state medical examiner’s office were unable to identify the remains or determine the cause of death during the autopsy Wednesday. DNA identification will be necessary to do that, said James Ferland, a spokesman for the office.

Police said late Wednesday that they did not expect further developments in the case until later in the week. They did not speculate on possible motives for the slayings or explain how Nielsen cut up the corpses.

Maine State Police and investigators from the Medical Examiner’s office on Wednesday returned to Upton while others went back to the bed and breakfast for further examination of the premises.

Meanwhile, Nielsen remained at the Oxford County Jail on Wednesday night charged with four counts of murder. Jail Administrator Capt. Ernest Marin said Nielsen had not had any problems with other inmates. Officials at the lockup have been concerned that the heinous nature of the crimes Nielsen is accused of and the media focus on the investigation may cause upheaval at the jail.

Whitehurst, a disabled father of four who was recently divorced, moved into the Black Bear about a month ago while trying to get custody of his two youngest children, according to his sister.

The relationship between Whitehurst and Nielsen was not revealed, though it was believed they had been acquainted for at least a month.

Police believe Whitehurst was the first to die. They say 31-year-old Nielsen killed him Friday in Upton, burned the corpse and hid the remains in the woods off Campbell Brook Road.

Police said Julie Bullard was killed on Sunday at the bed and breakfast she had owned since 2004.

Nielsen next killed Selby Bullard and Cynthia Beatson, friends and real estates agents from Bethel, when those women went to the bed and breakfast Monday to check on Julie Bullard, police said. All three bodies were cut up on the grounds of the inn, though police did not provide further details.

Investigators also found the carcasses of three golden retrievers inside the bed and breakfast.

The grisly nature of the killings has drawn media attention from around the country. It has also created particular hardships in the collection and examination of remains.

But the task of performing autopsies on multiple dismembered bodies would be viewed as part of the job, a former chief medical examiner for Maine said in a Wednesday telephone interview.

Dr. Henry Ryan said he was always so focused on the job of getting the facts right that he didn’t have a chance to get emotionally caught up in the deaths of the people on whom he performed autopsies.

The most emotionally difficult thing he ever had to do over the 22 years he served as chief was to notify an Auburn airport full of friends and relatives that there were no survivors on a plane that had crashed.

Much like a surgeon, the job of medical examiner took “a great deal of concentration” to achieve the proper outcome. In his case, it usually was correctly identifying the manner and cause of death, as well as identifying the victims.

“I don’t have a morbid curiosity,” he said, noting he doesn’t watch violent movies and doesn’t own a television.