PALMYRA (AP) – A 13-year-old boy found slain outside his home in what investigators said was a case of domestic violence was shot to death, the state medical examiner’s office said Wednesday.

An autopsy concluded that Anthony Tucker died of multiple gunshot wounds to the head, the office said, and the death was determined to be a homicide.

Todd Curry, 39, who lived in the home with Tucker, his mother and two other children, was scheduled to make his initial appearance Wednesday in Superior Court on a murder charge but the case was postponed after he was unexpectedly hospitalized, the Somerset County sheriff said.

Curry was taken to the hospital Tuesday evening for an evaluation following a mental breakdown, said Sheriff Barry A. DeLong.

“He was not injured in jail. Apparently he had some kind of mental meltdown, so he’s going over there for an evaluation,” DeLong said.

Curry was taken into custody after deputies and troopers arrived and found the boy’s body outside his house at 6:30 a.m.; he was charged with murder Tuesday afternoon after being questioned at the state police barracks in Skowhegan, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

State police investigators have declined to discuss what precipitated the killing.

Tucker’s mother, April Cooley, 32, and Curry had been a couple for several years, McCausland said. The two remaining children, including an infant fathered by Curry, were staying with their mother at the home of friends or relatives, McCausland said.

On Tuesday, neighbors reported hearing gunshots coming from the direction of the home around the time the incident was first reported in a 911 call.

The victim, an eighth-grader at Somerset Valley Middle School in Hartland, was remembered as a cheerful youngster who would wave to passers-by as he waited for the bus.

“He was very respectful, very polite,” said neighbor Laurie Holmbom, whose children had played with Tucker. “He’s someone you didn’t mind having around because he’s a good kid.”

AP-ES-11-29-06 1647EST