The man and woman found dead Saturday inside their Richmond mobile home were Kirk Alexander Jr., 46, and his longtime girlfriend, Niomi Mello, 37, Maine State Police said Sunday.

Autopsies have been completed on the two bodies at the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta, state police said. Results will be released Monday.

The couple’s bodies were found in the kitchen of the home at 7 Post Road by Mello’s 11-year-old son late Saturday morning. He ran to a nearby convenience store to seek help, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

The boy is now staying with his father.

Mello’s mother described her daughter as kind and loving.

“She was a beautiful soul,” Rosemarie Mello of Harpswell said Sunday.

Advertisement

One of Niomi Mello’s sisters said in a telephone interview later Sunday that Niomi had been a victim of domestic violence.

“It was an unhealthy relationship and unstable,” Krystal Mello, also of Harpswell, said of her sister’s relationship with Alexander.

The family declined to go into details because of the police investigation.

“She was very outgoing, full of life, always trying to do her best,” Krystal Mello added.

In addition to her son, Niomi Mello had a daughter, 16.

Casey Martin of Vinalhaven, another sister, said Niomi had a knack for making people laugh.

Advertisement

“She would start making jokes, always putting us in hysteria,” she said.

Earlier Sunday, Alexander’s family said they were shocked to learn of his death and hadn’t been told anything by police about its circumstances.

Kirk Alexander Sr. said the family had only been informed by police that they found his son, Kirk Jr., dead at the mobile home, along with the body of his girlfriend.

Niomi Mello

“We don’t know anything. This was a shock. They are not through with their investigation,” Alexander said.

He said his son had lived with his girlfriend at the mobile home for several years.

His son was a self-employed sea worm digger and was the father of two teenage children.

Advertisement

Alexander said his son was in the National Guard at one point and attended Richmond middle and high schools. He liked to do electronics repair in his spare time.

Police have released few details about the deaths of the couple, and McCausland declined to release further information Sunday.

Detectives from the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit interviewed neighbors and spoke with relatives Saturday afternoon.

The home is next to the Richmond Corner Baptist Church near the intersection of routes 138 and 197.

The senior Alexander owns the land at 7 Post Road and his son owned the mobile home.

 

Comments are not available on this story.

filed under: