BETHEL — A spokesman for the Maine State Police confirmed Sunday that the death of a Bethel woman found Friday following a three-day search was a suicide.

Steve McCausland, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said an autopsy performed this weekend by the state Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that Kim Vanderlaan, 40, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. Vanderlaan’s body was found Friday by a search team on Walker Mountain. The mother of two moved to Maine about a year ago from Rhode Island where her children still live with their father.

Vanderlaan was reported missing Tuesday evening to Bethel Police by her boyfriend, John St. Hilaire. Her body was discovered less than a mile behind her residence on Walkers Mills Road, which is also Route 26. 


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