HOULTON — Maine State Police announced Monday night that the death of a 61-year-old Houlton man had been ruled a homicide, and sought the public’s help to determine who he may have been with in the hours before his death.

Keith Suitter lived alone in a mobile home on 412 Hillview Ave., where he was found dead Sunday night by a friend who had gone to check on him after Suitter’s pickup truck was discovered stuck in a snowbank about a half mile from Suitter’s home late Sunday night, according to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.

Detectives spent Monday gathering evidence on Hollywood Road, where the truck was found, and from inside the home.

A state police Criminal Investigation Division vehicle was parked on Hollywood Road near the red Ford F-150 pickup truck.

Detectives asked anyone who had seen Suitter or his pickup truck over the weekend to call state police barracks in Houlton at 532-5400.

McCausland said the truck will be taken to the state police crime lab in Augusta and an autopsy on Suitter is scheduled for Tuesday morning at the state medical examiner’s ofice.

Suitter had lived at the home for approximately 20 years, and had a number of family members in the Houlton and southern Aroostook area. He also had a criminal history, mainly involving drugs.

In 2001, helicopter surveillance spotted marijuana plants growing behind a home on Hollywood Road that Suitter owned. The Maine Drug Enforcement Agency executed a search warrant and found 10 large marijuana plants growing behind the trailer.

Suitter was charged with aggravated cultivation of marijuana.

Drying marijuana and processed marijuana were found inside the trailer along with scales. A 12-gauge shotgun also was seized.

Suitter previously had been convicted of trafficking in cocaine. Since he was a convicted felon, he was prohibited from possessing a firearm.

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