Maine State Police on Saturday charged a 23-year-old man with arson and murdering his grandmother, whose body was found inside her Old Orchard Beach home last week after a fire was doused in her bedroom.

Police allege that Patricia Noel, 62, was murdered and then the fire was set, said Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

McCausland said Derek Poulin was arrested Saturday afternoon at his mother’s house on Brighton Avenue in Portland. The action was taken after police got the results of lab tests on material taken from Noel’s home, McCausland said.

The evidence that was tested was gathered by both state police and investigators from the state Fire Marshal’s Office, McCausland said.

He declined to identify the material or say what was the cause of Noel’s death. The cause of death will likely be revealed at Poulin’s first court appearance, which McCausland said is expected to be Monday or Tuesday.

Poulin was being held at the York County Jail following his arrest.

Poulin and his father, Reggie Poulin, both lived in Noel’s Wesley Avenue house. Derek Poulin was unemployed and spent much of his time in an upstairs room at the house, an aunt said.

Firefighters were called to the house shortly after 2 p.m. last Tuesday after neighbors reported the fire. The firefighters quickly extinguished the fire, which started in Noel’s first-floor bedroom, and then discovered her body.

After state police began investigating, they seized Derek Poulin’s car and cellphone. McCausland would not say Saturday whether any evidence from the car or cellphone was instrumental in the decision to arrest Poulin.

Police had refused to let Poulin back into the house after the fire and his father said his son was staying with another family member. 

Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:

emurphy@pressherald.com

 

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