VASSALBORO — Police late Friday afternoon identified a Waterville man as the person whose body was found outside an abandoned mobile home earlier in the day. Authorities are calling the death suspicious.

The deceased man was Thomas Namer, 69, of 89 Pleasant St., Maine State Police spokesman Steve McCausland said in a news release. McCausland said the state medical examiner was conducting an autopsy Friday.

The man who lives next door to where Namer’s body was found was taken into custody by police on an unrelated charge.

Courtney D. Shea, 30, was arrested on a charge of probation violation and taken to the Kennebec County jail, McCausland said. He said detectives questioned Shea and determined he had violated probation on a robbery conviction.

The conviction stems from an incident on Sept. 7, 2009, when he threatened a clerk at The Big Apple store on Elm Street in Waterville with a tire iron, according to court records. In 2008, he was convicted of arson after he torched a neighbor’s pickup truck. He also has convictions for operating with a suspended license and unlawful possession of the seizure and panic disorder medication Klonopin.

In Vassalboro on Friday, police interviewed people in the area and were trying to piece together what happened, according to Lt. Chris Coleman of the Maine State Police.

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McCausland said investigators interviewed several people in an attempt to retrace Namer’s footsteps Thursday night. He said state police detectives gathered unspecified evidence from the area and it will be analyzed at the state police crime lab. The investigation will continue over the weekend, he said.

A neighbor called 911 a little before 7 a.m. Friday and said he saw a body on the property next door, an area near the Maine Criminal Justice Academy.

The body was on the ground outside 2349 Riverside Drive, U.S. Route 201, according to Kennebec County Sheriff Randall Liberty. The 2349 Riverside Drive address was listed in court documents as Shea’s residence when he was convicted of robbery.

Coleman said earlier Friday police didn’t know whether the man died on the property or if he was brought there.

“We’re starting the process of scene examination and we’re conducting interviews to try and piece together what might have happened,” Coleman said Friday morning. “At this stage in the investigation, it’s too early to draw any conclusions. We have detectives and deputies interviewing several people,” he said.

State police and the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office are investigating.


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