BANGOR (AP) — As police continue to investigate a burning car with three bodies inside, the state medical examiner’s office is moving forward with autopsies as it seeks to determine the victims’ identities and how they died.
The burning car with Rhode Island license plates was reported to emergency officials by a woman who saw flames on her way to work early Monday.
“It was fully engulfed when I saw it. There was lots of popping and small booms,” said Kat Walls, a radio announcer who dialed 911 at 3:33 a.m. Monday. “It was hard to tell it was a car at times because it was so engulfed.”
Firefighters made the grisly discovery of the bodies after dousing the flames.
With the deaths declared suspicious, the bodies were recovered Monday afternoon from the blackened sedan and taken to the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta. Autopsies were scheduled for today.
The car was parked near Automatic Distributors, a parts and equipment wholesaler for all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, off-road motorcycles and other outdoor activities.
Police were reviewing surveillance video, including some that may shed some light on the fire.
Stratham Tire manager Jeff Gordon said his surveillance video showed an orange glow just three minutes after vehicles headed in that general direction. The burning car, off camera, was about 100 yards away in a different parking lot.
Another video, from Automatic Distributors, showed a person running away from the location near Target Industrial Circle, an employee told the Bangor Daily News.
Bangor police Sgt. Paul Edwards, who declined to comment on the videos, said law enforcement authorities were moving forward in a methodical manner and were considering all scenarios, including the possibility the fire was accidental.
“All we have now is a fire in a car with three dead people in it and we’re in the beginning stages of trying to piece it together,” he said.
Three mobile command posts from the Bangor Police Department, the state police and the state fire marshal’s office were at the scene Monday afternoon. A tent was set up for processing evidence, as well.
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