The man who killed himself last week in Lincoln after a four-hour police standoff on Interstate 95 told police that he killed his former housemate because the man was molesting children and nobody else would stop him, according to a newspaper report.

Bruce Heal, who also went by the name Bruce King, said he forced Lawrence Lewis of Molunkus Township to swallow two bottles of nitroglycerin and one bottle of “psych meds,” according to an affidavit obtained by the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday in Lincoln District Court.

The paper reported that the affidavit says Heal, 59, told Penobscot County Sheriff’s Deputy Patty McLaughlin shortly before he killed himself with a rifle that he had reported Lewis to authorities for molesting children and “no one was doing anything.”

Lewis, 68, was convicted of raping a 9-year-old boy in 1992 and was listed on the state’s sex offender registry.

Investigators say that Heal lived with Lewis in recent years. Heal’s wife, Lynda Fogg, 43, also lived at the house in Molunkus Township, in southern Aroostook County. Fogg and Heal had moved out recently and were living in a motel.

When contacted by the Portland Press Herald, McLaughlin declined to discuss the affidavit Wednesday night, as did Chief Deputy Troy Morton. Both said they did not want to speak about an investigation that is under the jurisdiction of state police.

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State police spokesman Stephen McCausland said he had not seen the affidavit and would not comment on it. He said state police detectives are waiting to find out the cause of Lewis’ death, which is being investigated as a homicide.

He said it will take the state Medical Examiner’s Office several weeks to deliver its report.

McCausland said it is a complicated case and investigators are examining many factors. “First and foremost is the cause of death,” he said.

He would not say whether any allegations had been made to police recently about Lewis regarding his behavior with children.

Heal killed himself during a standoff with police on March 11, and police found Lewis’ body in his home that evening.

Investigators have said that Heal told sheriff’s deputies before killing himself that he was responsible for Lewis’s death and that the body was hidden in his house.

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Tom Bell can be contacted at 791-6369 or at:

tbell@pressherald.com

 


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