LEWISTON — Police say a 20-year-old local man was killed in Greene late Tuesday after an altercation that began in Auburn.

Maine State Police on Friday charged a Lewiston man in the death of Romeo Parent, who hadn’t been seen since the start of the week.

Michael McNaughton, 23, was charged Friday morning with murder. Investigators said the killing was committed because McNaughton believed Parent was a police informant.

McNaughton was arrested at the Lewiston Police Department where he had been questioned, investigators said. McNaughton, who has no criminal convictions, is being held without bail at the Androscoggin County Jail.

Police said Parent was killed late Tuesday night. His body was found Friday afternoon in Jug Stream, just below the dam that separates Annabessacook and Cobbosseecontee lakes in Monmouth.

Parent’s body was taken to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Augusta for an autopsy, to be performed Saturday, police said.

Detectives believe Parent was killed near South Mountain Road in Greene late Tuesday and that his body was dumped into the stream along Route 135 on Wednesday. State police divers and dogs found the body at about 3:30 p.m. Friday.

Parent’s last post on Facebook was April 5, when he posted a photo of himself.

The two men knew each other, investigators said. They were friends, but McNaughton had come to believe that Parent had provided information to police about earlier criminal matters.

Parent’s parents both live locally. On Thursday night, they learned from police that homicide was suspected in their son’s disappearance.

Friends of the family described Parent as an energetic young man who had overcome difficulties.

“I think he was a great kid in spite of all his hardships,” said Suze Allen Blood, a friend of Parent’s mother. “His mum tried everything she could do to help him. He was a funny and energetic person, and will be sadly missed.”

Parent attended Lewiston High School and worked at an area Dunkin’ Donuts. He had lived at 23 Howe St. in Lewiston but was described by police as a transient.

Troopers, Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department deputies, the Maine Warden Service, and Lewiston and Auburn police searched the stream Friday.

At the Maine State Police barracks in Gray on Friday afternoon, Lt. Brian McDonough said his detectives had been working for days, interviewing potential witnesses and searching for the body.

Auburn police had alerted state police that Parent was missing and that he may have been killed.

McDonough said no one besides McNaughton had been arrested by Friday afternoon, but he would not rule out the possibility of further arrests as the investigation continues.

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