Maine State Police have concluded that a husband stabbed his estranged wife to death and then killed himself with a gunshot last week at a home in the rural Penobscot County town of Alton.

A close friend of the man also was found shot dead, but the exact manner of his death remained a mystery Sunday.

Danielle Folsom Reed, 39, was killed Nov. 19 by Scott Reed, 43, who stabbed her multiple times in the neck and throat in what police characterized as a domestic violence homicide.

Scott Reed died several hours later from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The third victim, Scott Reed’s close friend Daniel Young, 41, of Bradley, also died from a gunshot wound to the head.

“We’re trying to determine whether (Young) was shot by Reed or whether he killed himself,” Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety, said Sunday. “We still have more interviews to conduct to answer that one question.”

Autopsies concluded that both men died of “close-contact gunshot wounds to the head.”

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The Reeds had been married for five years but had been living apart in recent months, police said. They did not have any children. Scott Reed had been out of state prior to the deaths.

An autopsy revealed Danielle Reed was killed early Monday afternoon inside a home the couple rented. Scott Reed then met up with Young at a restaurant in Bangor. They spent several hours there and returned to Reed’s home in Alton about 5:30 p.m.

At 6:52 p.m., Reed phoned a female friend and asked her to meet him at the house. The friend called police at 7:23 p.m., after she discovered one of the bodies in an upstairs bedroom.

Police later found the two other bodies in the same room.

A suicide note written by Scott Reed and described by McCausland as “rambling” was found inside the house.

Police later discovered during interviews with people who knew Scott Reed and Young that both men had talked in the past about committing suicide, McCausland said.

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Two guns were found at the home. One was owned by Young, but detectives have yet to determine who owned the second gun.

Scott Reed suffered a severe head injury in a car crash in the past year and was disabled, according to the Associated Press. It also reported that Danielle Reed worked at a restaurant on Mount Desert Island this summer, but most recently was looking for work. Young worked for a mortgage company in Bangor.

Staff Writer Eric Russell contributed to this report.

Staff Writer Jessica Hall can be contacted at 791-6316 or at:

jhall@mainetoday.com


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