There was no history of domestic violence between a man and his estranged girlfriend who died in an apparent murder-suicide Saturday in Lebanon, according to Maine State Police.
State police believe that Thomas Doyon, 27, shot and killed Allyson Parker, 30, before shooting himself, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
McCausland said the couple had lived together for three years at the house on Bigelow Road where the deaths occurred. Parker had moved out of the house after the couple broke up recently and had returned Saturday with her parents and a friend to retrieve some of her belongings, he said.
McCausland said Sunday that there was no “paper trail” of previous incidents of domestic violence between the couple.
McCausland said Parker’s 7-year-old daughter, from a previous relationship, was not at the house when the shooting occurred. The girl was with a babysitter and is now with family, he said.
The firearm used in the shooting was a handgun owned by Doyon, said McCausland, who could not provide any additional information about the weapon or how it was obtained.
“Evidence technicians, state police and detectives worked into the night last night gathering evidence from inside the home and interviewing family members and friends,” McCausland said Sunday. “We are following up today with family, friends and who they work for.”
Both of Parker’s parents, who also live in the home, and the friend were inside the house when they heard gunshots from an upstairs bedroom. The three fled and called police.
When officers arrived, McCausland said, they didn’t know if anyone was alive or not, so they tried several times to make contact. Some nearby homes were evacuated as a precaution and the road was closed to traffic.
After several hours and no success making contact, police entered the home and found the bodies around 3:45 p.m. Saturday.
Autopsies were conducted at the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta, but the results were not available Sunday night.
Lebanon is a town of about 6,000 residents in York County, west of Sanford and on the border with New Hampshire.
Domestic violence homicides are among the most common in Maine, McCausland said. Half of Maine’s 18 homicides last year were related to domestic violence.
Last December in Richmond, police said 46-year-old Kirk Alexander Jr. used a 9mm handgun to kill his longtime girlfriend, Niomi Mello, 37, before turning the weapon on himself. The bodies were found by the woman’s 11-year-old son.
This past March, Kenneth Bryant, 48, of Gardiner shot and killed his estranged wife, Autumn Bryant, 44, before taking his own life.
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