UNITY TOWNSHIP — The state Medical Examiner’s Office continued trying Monday to positively identify three bodies that were found Sunday in the burnt rubble of a mobile home.

All three bodies were burned beyond recognition, said Steve McCausland, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.

Additional Photos

Jim Saucier looks over the yard filled with household items and vehicles Monday at a mobile home where three adults were killed in a fire in Unity Township a day earlier. David Leaming/Morning Sentinel

“The medical examiner’s office may have to resort to DNA testing, and that could take a few days,” McCausland said. “In one of the cases, the next of kin has not been notified; there’s been difficulty finding relatives.”

The three people who were living in the home — two men in their 50s and a woman in her 70s — are unaccounted-for, McCausland said.

The state Fire Marshal’s Office says the cause of the fire may never be determined. Investigators say there was little left of the mobile home.

The fire apparently started Saturday night but was not discovered until 10 a.m. Sunday, when a passer-by saw the smoldering rubble on the dead-end Reynolds Road, off Route 139, McCausland said.

All that remained Monday was the twisted frame of the mobile home, its wheels melted into the frozen ground.

People who live and work nearby said Monday that they knew the residents of the mobile home as Pete and Rose. The names have not been confirmed by investigators.

They were a couple who bought and sold everything from antiques to used refrigerators, and many items were in their yard. Their white Toyota Tercel also was parked in the yard Monday.

“He was a gatherer, that’s the only term I can use,” said Ron Clark of Dixmont, who works at Fantasy Speedway, next to the lot where the mobile home was. “He was pleasant — he and Rose both were pleasant — we didn’t have much contact with her, but some.”

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