CARIBOU, Maine — Maine State Police and the state fire marshal’s office are investigating the suspicious death of a man found Thursday night inside a burning house on Lyndon Street, according to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
“It’s [a] homicide,” McCausland said Friday night.
An autopsy was conducted Friday by the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta, McCausland said. He declined to say what was the cause or manner of the man’s death.
Late yesterday afternoon, the victim was positively identified by authorities as 58-year-old Kenneth C. Zernicke, who lived at the residence.
McCausland said that an informational roadblock was conducted around 6 p.m. Friday in an effort to find passers-by who might have seen someone entering or leaving the residence around the time of the fire.
Caribou firefighters went to the house at 5 Lower Lyndon St. just before 10 p.m. and found Zernicke’s body on the premises, McCausland said.
Lily Searles, a neighbor on a nearby street, said Friday afternoon that her husband, Wendall, saw a vehicle leave the residence shortly before the fire.
“Someone drove their truck in the driveway, left their lights on, and my husband said it looked like they might have walked in the house,” Searles said. “They were only there for a minute and then they got back in the truck, made a U-turn, and drove off. There were flames blowing out of the windows not too long after that.
“My husband looked out the window and said, ‘Holy cow, that’s a big ball of flame,’” she said.
Searles said she and her husband related to investigators what they had seen.
Searles said she has known the resident of the house for years.
“He was working for a farmer from 6 in the morning until 6 at night when this happened,” Searles said. “He worked the fall harvest just about every year since I’ve known him. I couldn’t say a bad thing about him; he’d do anything for you.”
Fire damage to the home was confined to the interior, according to McCausland.
Fire and police investigators, including some from the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit, were at the house Friday afternoon, with that section of Lyndon Street blocked off and officers keeping the public away from the property.
McCausland said State Police, working with Caribou Police, continue to investigate his death and continue to ask for the public’s help for anyone who saw any activity around Zernicke’s house at 5 Lower Lyndon Street last Thursday evening between 6 and 8 p.m.
Anyone with information is asked to call State Police in Houlton at 532-5400.
BDN writer Dawn Gagnon and Aroostook Republican reporter Christopher Bouchard contributed to this report.
