MEMBERS OF THE Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department and Bowdoinham Fire Department respond to a suspected suicide at Mailly Waterfront Park in Bowdoinham on Tuesday.
Sagadahoc County Sheriff ’s Office responded to a death reported at Mailly Waterfront Park on Tuesday in Bowdoinham.
The death is not considered suspicious. The cause is apparently a self-inflicted gunshot wound and the sheriff ’s office is treating it as a suicide. However, the state medical examiner’s office is expected to make a final determination.
The victim is an adult woman from Bowdoin.
Chief Deputy Brett Strout said a man who drove through the waterfront park discovered the body and reported it at 8:16 a.m.
This is the second public suicide by firearm that has occurred recently in the Midcoast. Last month, a man shot himself to death at a doctor’s office at the Fort Andross Mill complex in Brunswick.
Suicide rates increase in the spring. According to the Maine Suicide Prevention Program, there have been 689 deaths by suicide in Maine between 2011 and 2013.
During that period, suicide was the first leading cause of death for Maine adolescents between the ages of 10 and 14, second among Maine residents between 15 and 34 years of age, and fourth among Maine residents between the ages of 35 and 54.
According to Midcoast Community Alliance, over the past five years, greater Sagadahoc County has lost more than 20 people to suicide.
To speak with a trained crisis clinician 24 hours a day, seven days a week in Maine, call Sweetser’s Crisis Services at 1-888-568-1112. If out of state, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK.
For more information, visit the MSPP website at maine.gov/suicide.
The Times Record does not normally report on suicides unless they occur in a public place.
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