The investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of three people in a murder-suicide in Alton has shifted from the Medical Examiner’s Office to the State Crime Lab.

Police announced over the weekend that autopsies and crime scene analysis showed Scott Reed, 43, stabbed his estranged wife, Danielle Folsom Reed, 39, to death at their home on Alton Tannery Road on Nov. 19, and took his own life later in the day.

But police are still trying to determine whether the third person found dead at the home, Daniel Young, 41, of Bradley, committed suicide or was killed by Scott Reed. Young and Reed were best friends and had previously discussed suicide, friends told police.

“There were two guns there … we believe both guns were used,” Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said Monday. “Lab tests will attempt to determine who would have handled both guns.”

Police may conduct ballistics tests and dust the guns for fingerprints, McCausland said. “They’ll use whatever techniques they can to determine whether Young used one of the guns,” he said.

Autopsies showed both men died from “close contact gunshot wounds to the head,” police said.

Reed had been disabled since being involved in a serious car crash a year ago, police said. Young worked for a mortgage broker in Bangor.

Danielle Reed was stabbed to death, according to an autopsy by the state medical examiner.

After she was killed, Scott Reed and Young went to a local restaurant for several hours before returning to the house at Alton Tannery Road, police said. There, Reed called a female friend, who arrived about 7:30 p.m. and discovered one of the bodies and called police, who found the others.

One of the two guns found at the home belonged to Young. Police were still trying to determine who owned the other gun, McCausland said Monday.

Police suspect Young died before Reed shot himself, but McCausland would not elaborate on why they believe that. Police said Reed left behind a rambling suicide note but they did not disclose its contents.

Alton is a sparsely populated community near Old Town. Alton Tannery Road is a rural road cutting across the town, running from the Alton Cemetery in the east to Northland Taxidermy in the west.

 

Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:

dhench@pressherald.com