RUMFORD — Nearly 12 hours after state and local police swarmed Mountain Valley High School on Friday in a hunt for a man suspected of killing his wife in Berlin, New Hampshire, the suspect was found dead.

“Denis Bisson shot himself along the banks of the Androscoggin River, near an information booth on Bridge Street,” according to a news release. “Nearby residents heard a shot and called police who found his body about 11:30 p.m. A short time earlier Bisson’s pickup truck was located along an ATV trail off Route 108, about three miles from where his body was found.”

Several people reported a number of police vehicles rolling into the school parking lot around 2 p.m. Friday while others said helicopters were flying overhead into the early evening.

Police said the body of Bisson’s wife, 43, was found inside a home Friday morning. The search was on later in the day for her 52-year-old husband, suspected of shooting his wife and considered armed and dangerous.

Bisson was named in a warrant on a charge of second-degree murder. Investigators said Bisson was believed to be in the Rumford-Mexico area, although there had been no confirmed sightings of him or the truck he was driving.

One woman who lives near the high school reported at least 40 police vehicles in the parking lot. Among them, she said, was a crisis negotiation van.

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Maine State Police Spokesman Stephen McCausland said more than three dozen Maine police officers participated in the manhunt.

Several people who live in the area said they were staying home and locking their doors until police advised them on the situation.

Police on Friday were using Mountain Valley High School as a staging area as they searched for a suspect wanted in the killing of a woman in Berlin, N.H. (Bruce Farrin/Rumford Falls Times)

Denis Bisson, wanted in the death of his wife in Berlin, N.H., was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound late Friday night.

An Oxford County Sheriff’s Office helicopter circles Bangor Savings Bank in Rumford at about 7:30 p.m. Friday. Police were using Mountain Valley High School as a staging area as they searched for a man wanted in the killing of a woman in Berlin, N.H. (Bruce Farrin/Rumford Falls Times)

Police swarmed on Mountain Valley High School Friday in Rumford as part of the search for a suspect in a killing in New Hampshire. 


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