RUMFORD — Police were called to a Royal Lane home on Tuesday morning to investigate a possible drowning death in an in-ground pool.
The adult victim’s name isn’t being released pending notification of family members, Capt. Daniel Garbarini said early Tuesday afternoon.
“On June 28 at 9:11 a.m., the Rumford Police Department responded to a report of a possible drowning on Royal Lane in Rumford,” he stated in a brief news release.
“When police arrived, it was determined that one person was deceased. … The time of death is unknown at this time. It was an in-ground pool surrounded by a fence.”
The medical examiner’s office and Maine State Police have been notified of the incident at 6 Royal Lane. It is a white house on a short lane beside a cul-de-sac off Royal Avenue, which is off Route 2 just west of McDonald’s.
“The case remains under investigation and an autopsy is expected to be conducted in Augusta,” Garbarini said.
“Part of the investigation is to rule out any foul play, so we can’t make assumptions that just because it looks like an accident, it is.”
Garbarini said that he and Detective Sgt. James Bernard, Sgt. Tracey Higley and another officer responded, along with Rumford firefighters and Med-Care Ambulance.
At 10 a.m., one cruiser was parked in the driveway; the other three along the west side of the quiet little road tucked into the woods.
As Garbarini spoke with a man on the front steps, Higley and Bernard could be seen in the backyard near a pool covered with a tarp.
Crewmen on a town garbage truck were making the rounds, emptying waste barrels in front of homes on the pine needle-strewn lane, as a town street sweeper slowly drove by wetting down Royal Avenue.
Shortly after 10 a.m., a Maine State Police detective arrived. Garbarini said they notified an assistant district attorney in South Paris, who recommended they contact state police.
Maine State Police Lt. Walter Grzyb said Tuesday afternoon by email that he was told by MSP Sgt. Rick Fowler that a state police detective did go to the Royal Lane scene, “but they have no indication of anything suspicious, and it is being handled as a routine unattended death.”
The S. G. Thibault Funeral Home on Penobscot Street was also notified, Garbarini said.
According to Rumford’s 2011 real estate tax records, the 0.61-acre property at 6 Royal Lane is owned by World War II veteran Raymond R. Berryment.
View 6 Royal Lane, Rumford, ME 04276 in a larger map
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- Rumford police cruisers line Royal Lane on Tuesday morning as police investigated the possible drowning death of an adult in an in-ground pool surrounded by a fence in the backyard of a home at 6 Royal Lane.
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