Child care provider slain in Aroostook

CASWELL – A woman who provided child care in her home was found slain Monday morning.

The body of Tara Bell, 27, was discovered at 6:30 a.m. by a woman bringing children to be cared for by Bell in her home on Libby Road about a quarter-mile from the intersection with Route 1A.

Police ruled Bell’s death a homicide, but would not immediately say how the woman died.

A Limestone woman was detained later Monday as a possible witness.

Bell lived with her two daughters, ages 3 and 6. On Sunday night the 6-year-old slept at her grandparents’ home next door. Appleton said the younger daughter was still sleeping in her bed when her mother was found.

Bell and her husband, Troy Bell, had been separated for a couple of months, said Sgt. Dennis Appleton, a detective with the Criminal Investigation Division of the Maine State Police. Troy Bell lives in his wife’s former day care center on Bog Road. She had transferred her business to her Libby Road home.

“Troy Bell has been very cooperative in this investigation,” Appleton said. “He has provided us with whatever information we asked for all morning.”

Deputy Medical Examiner Michael Ferenc was flown to the scene Monday morning. He and Jim Ferland, administrative assistant to the state medical examiner, drove the body to Augusta, leaving shortly before 2 p.m. An autopsy was scheduled for this morning in Augusta.

A Limestone woman, Laura Kirk, 33, of 129 Noyes Mill Road, was detained for questioning by police in Caribou shortly after noon Monday. She was being questioned by Maine State Police detectives at the Caribou Police Department on Monday afternoon.

“She may have information on what happened here last night,” Appleton said Monday morning outside Bell’s home. “At this point she is a potential witness.”

When asked if Kirk had been spotted in the neighborhood, he said, “She was not seen here by neighbors.”

Tara Bell’s home, a well-kept, cream-colored manufactured home with maroon shutters, sits between her parents’ home and a potato field at the end of a long driveway, which was cordoned off Monday by yellow police ribbons.

State game wardens could be seen scouring the nearby fields and roads with a dog. “We’re just looking for stuff,” said warden Sgt. Greg Sanborn.

Neighbors and relatives in the neighborhood, which is a mix of farms and homes, would say little to reporters Monday.

But it was clear the death hit hard in this town of 326 residents nestled between Limestone and Van Buren. “We’ve never heard of anything like this, and many of us still don’t believe it could happen here,” said Gil Parent, owner of Parent’s Convenience Store. “We only hear of these things happening in larger cities, away from here.”

Parent’s daughter, Gayla Parent, said Tara Bell was a friendly, energetic person. “She loved kids, and was very good with children,” she said. The Caswell Plantation Consolidated Elementary School can be seen from Bell’s house.

“Our daughters go to school at Caswell,” Gayla Parent said.

Appleton said he did not know how many children Bell cared for in her home, which has a two-story, two-door attached garage and a large yard.

Visible in back was a children’s swing. A log-and-post fence was decorated with Christmas lights, and a plastic Santa Claus and snowman stood just off a small front porch.