Blue Hill murder suspect found dead > Barry Astbury dies from gunshot blast to head; hunting rifle, note found nearby

BLUE HILL — A Blue Hill man indicted on charges of murdering his ex-wife was found dead of a single gunshot wound to the head in his home here Tuesday morning.

Thomas Goodwin, assistant attorney general, said a hunting rifle was found near the body of Barry D. Astbury, who left a note “consistent with suicide.” Officials would not divulge the contents of the note, but Goodwin said the case appeared to be “resolved.”

Astbury’s second wife, 38-year-old real estate broker Louise Potts, was found dead Oct. 26 of a single gunshot wound in the basement garage of her Blue Hill home. Potts and Astbury, 36, had co-owned Mountain View Realty in Blue Hill until their divorce last August, when Potts assumed control.

Astbury’s lawyer, Christopher Whalley of Ellsworth, said he learned sometime before noon that Astbury’s parents had discovered their son’s body around 11:20 a.m., and called for an ambulance. Dr. Robert Baroody of Blue Hill Memorial Hospital informed Whalley of the death.

“Personally, suicide doesn’t make sense to me,” Whalley said Tuesday afternoon. Astbury had been in good spirits in recent days, and was expected for an appointment in his law office that afternoon.

“Now we have two dead people, and who knows why,” said Wha- lley.

The lawyer said he last spoke to his client around 10:30 a.m. Their appointment was to discuss a letter Astbury had received from the Secretary of State’s Office suggesting that his driver’s license status might be reviewed due to his taking medication.

As revealed in his Feb. 14 bail hearing, Astbury was on medication for obsessive compulsive disorder. Whalley said he also had been treated at Acadia Hospital at Bangor in recent months.

During the bail hearing, Astbury’s first wife, Janet Butler Torrey, testified that, shortly before Potts was killed, Astbury had threatened to expose Potts’ affair with married state trooper Daniel Ryan. Potts had previously obtained and then dropped a protection order against Astbury, who allegedly once held a loaded gun to her head.

In recent days, Astbury’s fortunes appeared to be looking up, said Whalley. In addition to Astbury’s having a solid alibi, said Whalley, a court order attaching most of his assets had been modified last week to include only four pieces of property, including two Astbury co-owned with Potts’ estate.

The attachments had been ordered by Superior Court Justice Margaret Kravchuk Feb. 13 in connection with a civil wrongful death suit filed by the deceased woman’s mother, Elizabeth Potts, and first husband, Eric Dow. Whalley said the suit, still pending, is primarily intended to provide for Potts’ daughter, a seventh-grader who now lives with Dow, her father, in Brooklin.

According to Whalley, Astbury also was seeking modification of his bail conditions to allow him to stay overnight at his own home with his parents present in order to see his two daughters from his first marriage. Bail conditions had required Astbury to stay at the Penobscot home of his parents, and to observe a curfew.