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NORWALK, Conn. – State police are now calling the deaths of two young men a murder-suicide and a case of domestic violence, Maine Department of Public Safety Spokesman Stephen McCausland said Monday.

Eric Niles, 19, of Alton, Maine, entered a house in Bradley, Maine, early Sunday morning and confronted Blake Michaud, 20, of Greenbush, Maine, and Kristin Cates, 18, of Bradley, Maine, in a bedroom at her parents’ home.

Niles killed Michaud and then abducted Cates in a pickup he had stolen from his grandfather, state police detectives have determined.

The cause of Michaud’s death will be determined by an autopsy Tuesday. Maine State Police detectives drove to Connecticut on Sunday and interviewed Cates, McCausland said in a statement.

Cates’ parents then drove to Connecticut to bring her back to Maine. No charges are contemplated against her. She had recently broken up with Niles and had a protection from abuse order against him. Kristin did not live with her parents at 59 Highpoint Place, police said.

Niles shot himself in the head as troopers in Norwalk, Conn., surrounded the vehicle on Interstate 95.


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