PRESQUE ISLE — A New Brunswick man charged with beating a man to death and dumping his body in Fort Fairfield was free Tuesday after the murder charge was dropped when witnesses refused to testify.

Clifford Solomon Sr., 54, of the Tobique Maliceet Reserve in Perth-Andover, New Brunswick, was released from the Aroostook County jail on Monday afternoon.

Solomon was accused of killing Anthony “Tony” Bear, 50, on Aug. 22, 1992, and dumping the body in a wooded area off Forest Avenue in Fort Fairfield. The badly decomposed body was found in early October 1992. A postmortem examination found that Bear died of blunt trauma to the head.

Solomon was arrested on a murder charge in the parking lot of a Caribou restaurant in October 1994 and later was indicted. He had remained in jail since that time, but was set free Monday.

According to court documents, the charge was dismissed after Tobique Reserve residents denied statements they made to Maine police when Bear’s body was found.

As Maine officials prepared for the trial, some witnesses refused to meet or speak with them. Other witnesses said they didn’t remember what they had told investigators earlier despite being shown the statements they had signed.

Because the witnesses are Canadian citizens, there is no legal way to compel them to testify, according to William Stokes, assistant attorney general.

“We’re obviously disappointed,” said Stokes. “This was a case that was difficult from the start.”

Because of the length of time the body was exposed to the elements before being discovered, it was hard to gather evidence at the scene, Stokes said.

According to Solomon’s attorney, Hal Stewart of Presque Isle, no evidence was taken from the scene to connect Solomon with the killing, and no murder weapon was recovered.

In dismissing the charge, the state reserved the right to bring the case to trial if additional evidence becomes available.

“We’ve always been of the view that two people were involved, including Clifford Solomon,” Stokes said.

In an affidavit filed in the District Court a year ago, police alleged another Tobique Maliceet Reserve resident was at the scene when Bear was beaten.

In the same affidavit, another reserve resident said that Solomon told him that he had killed Bear. That revelation came during an interview between the man and Canadian police while the man was in a hospital recovering from a beating he allegedly had been given by Solomon.

The same man also said that Solomon’s companion, allegedly involved with Bear’s death, was actually the murderer. No other charges have been filed in the case, however.

Efforts to reach Solomon at his Tobique home were unsuccessful.