Sgt. Stacey Blair, left, and Sgt. Alonzo Connor of the Gardiner Police Department secure the area Friday near 16 Bartlett St. in South Gardiner. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal file

AUGUSTA — Police responding to a South Gardiner home for a well-being check Friday found the body of Alfred MacMaster, 75, and shortly thereafter took his son into custody as a suspect, court records show.

Gregory Fisher, 52, who lived off and on with his parents at the home at 16 Bartlett St., has now been charged with his father’s killing, which police say took place as early as July 21, nearly a week before MacMaster’s body was found.

Fisher made his first appearance Monday at the Kennebec County Courthouse via Zoom video call from the Kennebec County jail, where he is being held without bail.

The probable cause affidavit filed by police alleges Fisher killed MacMaster as early as July 21 and left his body in the yard of his parents’ home on Bartlett Street, where he has lived over the past week with his girlfriend of two months.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Fisher was taken into custody Friday night after the Gardiner Police Department requested help from the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit, which was called in around 4:50 p.m. when Gardiner police found MacMaster’s body outside of the residence.

According to court records, Gardiner police visited the home after they received a call asking for a welfare check on MacMaster. When the police arrived they were met by Fisher, who said his father had died Sunday, five days earlier, in a car accident.

Inside the residence, the records say, police found blood stains on the carpet. In the backyard, they found a body wrapped in a bedding comforter that was concealed by carpet and cardboard. The body was identified as MacMaster Saturday by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, which concluded that MacMaster had died five to seven days earlier from blunt force trauma to the head.

The affidavit states that several people in the neighborhood reported to police that they had not seen MacMaster, or his wife Dorothy, in several days, and that Fisher and his girlfriend were living in the home as well. It wasn’t unusual that Fisher was living in the home, neighbors said, but it was unusual to not see the MacMasters, as they kept a consistent schedule.

A neighbor who said she dropped off raspberries at the home every day told police that when she stopped by one day last week she was met by Fisher’s girlfriend, who told her Alfred MacMaster had died in a car accident the previous Sunday. The neighbor was alarmed and contacted the MacMasters’ daughter, Sherry MacMaster.

Fisher’s girlfriend told police that he failed to pick her up at a scheduled time on either July 21 or 22. On July 23, she said, Fisher asked her if she could help take care of his mother because “his dad passed away.” The girlfriend then took Dorothy MacMaster to look for cemetery plots for Alfred.

The girlfriend told police that she noticed a strange smell and told Fisher to take out the trash.

According to court documents, when Fisher was arrested Friday night, he told Gardiner police that he had been using crack cocaine through the week and forged a $21,000 check using his father’s name and bank account. Several people interviewed by the Gardiner police mentioned seeing Fisher smoke out of a long pipe in front of the home.

Additionally, Joseph Fisher, Gregory’s brother, told police Alfred had given Gregory $20,000 over six months.

In Fisher’s first court appearance he was assigned a court-appointed attorney, Verne Paradie. He was asked by Judge Daniel Mitchell if he understood the charge, and Fisher responded that he did. Fisher’s lawyer of the day, John O’Donnell, said he told his client to speak with his appointed attorney about his mental health.

Fisher was convicted of domestic violence assault in Franklin County in 2003 and twice in Kennebec County, in 2009 and 2011.