NEW SWEDEN (AP) – A 78-year-old man died and a dozen others were sickened after sharing coffee and treats after a church service. Health officials quickly zeroed in on the food and beverages.

Five people remained in hospitals in Bangor and Caribou on Monday, a day after church members started becoming violently ill, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Public Safety Department.

The one common denominator was that all had attended the Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church and shared treats afterward, he said.

Church members said they shared coffee along with sweets and sandwiches left over from a church bake sale the day before.

All of those who were sickened had tried the coffee, and some of them reported that it didn’t taste good, said Tammy Doucette, whose aunt and uncle were in separate hospitals in Caribou and Bangor.

“They all said the coffee tasted funny,” she said. “Some of them took only a couple of drinks and said it didn’t taste right.”

Erich Margeson, 30, of Westmanland, said he had coffee and a sandwich and began feeling lightheaded on the drive home.

“I had a cup of coffee and on my way home I could taste a funny taste in my mouth,” said Margeson, who described a sensation of heat inside his mouth before he began throwing up.

His wife took him to Cary Medical Center in Caribou, where 13 people eventually sought treatment.

Walter Morrill of New Sweden died early Monday in the hospital’s intensive care unit, officials said. Three other victims were transferred to the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

Dr. Dora Mills, director of the Maine Bureau of Health, said the case was being investigated as a food- or beverage-borne illness. Investigators were looking at all factors, not just the coffee, she said.

But several church members believed it was the coffee. Margeson and Doucette said their children sampled the goodies but they did not get sick because they drank punch, not coffee.

State police detectives and health officials were at the church on Monday and samples were being shipped to the Maine Bureau of Health laboratory in Augusta for testing, McCausland said.

Items to be tested including samples from the patients and items retrieved from the church, including garbage.

AP-ES-04-28-03 1734EDT