Arrest: Body, Murder-Suicide Note Found After Explosion
By AMY PARMENTER and LEANNE GENDREAU
Updated 11:36 AM EDT, Tue, Jan 6, 2009
A Griswold man is accused of setting his house on fire after an investigation that led police to what appeared to be a murder-suicide note in the mailbox and a woman's body in a nearby forest.
Carson Mueller, of the Griswold address, was arrested Monday and charged with arson. He is being held on $ 1 million bond and is due in court Tuesday.
The ordeal started at 5 a.m., when neighbors of 74 Richardson Hill Road heard a loud blast and contacted the fire department and state police. State police said Monday an accelerant was apparently used.
As crews worked to extinguished the blaze, the investigation turned more grisly.
Inside the mailbox, there was a note indicating that a murder had been committed and that the note's writer was attempting suicide.
The note, which turned up in what police said was a standard investigation, led crews to search rubble and nearby Pachaug State Forest, where they found the woman's body. She has not been identified, but police said the death appears to be related to the investigation.
At about the same time crews investigated on Richardson Hill Road, there was a minor car collision in Colchester, which police said also seems to be related.
The driver, who appeared to have suffered minor burns, lives at the home that exploded, police said. After receiving medical treatment at Backus Hospital, Carson Mueller, of the Griswold address, was arrested Monday.
The Associated Press reports that he appears to have written the note.
The name of the dead person has not been released. The Day of New London reports that the home was owned by Mueller, and his mother, Denise Mueller, 69.
Police said they don't expect to find any other victims.
Gerald Nauss, a neighbor, told the Associated Press that the explosion shook his house.
"I would say it was like a bomb," said Nauss, a U.S. Army veteran. "I looked out the window and the flames were 25 to 30 feet in the air."
Nauss said a woman and her son lived at the house for several years.
"They were very, very quiet," Nauss said. "I never heard any problems."
Copyright Associated Press / NBC Connecticut
First Published: Jan 5, 2009 11:11 AM EDT
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