Bay State man jumps off bridge

Bucksport police were called to the Bucksport-Verona Island bridge Saturday morning after a Massachusetts man took his own life by jumping off the structure.

Chief Douglas E. Gray said that witnesses watched Walter H. Gustafson jump 35 feet from the bridge into the water at low tide shortly before 7:30 a.m. Saturday. By the time anyone was able to get into the water to assist the man, he had drowned.

Gray said the 44-year-old Waltham, Mass., man was employed as a sewing machine repairman, but had no reason to be in the area as far as anyone could determine. No note was found in the man’s car, which had been parked at the Verona boat launching area.