GRAFTON TOWNSHIP – The mental health consultant to Community Concepts’ Head Start program may have jumped to his death off a cliff on Old Speck Mountain last weekend, a spokesman for the Maine Warden Service said Tuesday.

Searchers found the body of Paul Marsh of the Portland area at the bottom of a 160-foot-high cliff in Grafton Notch State Park on Monday. The body was off the Eyebrow Trail, Maine Warden Service spokesman Mark Latti said.

Latti suggested that Marsh may have taken his own life.

“Evidence surrounding the search leads to him committing suicide,” Latti said. “Our investigation says he didn’t fall.”

Twenty-five people – including 12 wardens and others from Mahoosuc Rescue and Bethel Rescue – carried Marsh’s body out by 5:30 p.m. Monday, about seven hours after it was discovered. The body was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta to determine time of death, Latti said.

Marsh was believed to be in his early 50s, Latti said.

Deborah Florenz, director of Children’s Services with Community Concepts in Paris, said Marsh was the mental health consultant to the Children’s Services Head Start program. The program is for children from birth to age 5 and expectant families to increase social competence in young children of low-income families, according to the agency’s Web site.

Wardens first got word that something might be amiss on Sunday when one of Marsh’s friends called, alerting them.

“He said he was worried about (Marsh) because he was going through some personal problems, but was unsure when (Marsh) left. (Marsh) said he had gone to Grafton Notch to go hiking,” Latti said.

According to the Appalachian Trail trail-head log book, Marsh signed in at 9:45 a.m. Saturday, indicating he was hiking the Eyebrow Trail, Latti said.

The Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce describes the Eyebrow Trail as a loop of just over two miles. It follows the Appalachian Trail south for a short distance, then passes through hardwoods before steeply ascending to the top of Eyebrow Precipice, approximately 1,000 feet above the trail-head parking lot off the south side of Route 26.

“When we didn’t hear anything more by Sunday evening, wardens decided to go up the next day. There had been no reason for us to believe he was in any danger,” Latti said.

Wardens started up the Eyebrow Trail at 8:30 a.m. Monday. Near the top, Warden Brock Clukey discovered Marsh’s body at the bottom of a 160-foot cliff, he said.

Grafton Notch State Park park ranger Jon Metcalf said Tuesday afternoon that Marsh’s body was found on a shelf below the cliff. At the request of the victim’s family, Metcalf declined to confirm the victim’s name.

“A middle-aged man suffered fatal injuries. From the park’s perspective, this wasn’t a suicide,” Metcalf said.

The death is the first in the park in Metcalf’s decade-long tenure, and possibly, the first death of a hiker on Eyebrow Trail.