CASWELL – A local baby sitter who was found dead in her Libby Road home Monday morning was stabbed to death, according to autopsy results released Tuesday.

Tara Bell, 27, suffered multiple stab wounds sometime late Sunday or early Monday, according to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Bell’s body was found about 6:30 a.m. Monday on her kitchen floor by a woman who had brought her children to Bell’s home.

A weapon had not been recovered as of Tuesday afternoon, McCausland said, and no arrests had been made.

State Police Lt. Detective Darrell Ouellette, who is overseeing the investigation into Bell’s death, said some physical evidence had been recovered from Bell’s home and sent to the State Police Crime Lab in Augusta for analysis. He declined to describe the nature of the evidence.

Ouellette also said police were waiting for an analysis of evidence obtained during the autopsy.

The detective declined to say if there were any signs of a struggle or if Bell’s wounds included injuries indicating she might have tried to defend herself from her attacker.

He said it could be two or three days before the analysis of the evidence is complete.

“I’m optimistic that the investigation will lead to an arrest soon,” he said.

Bell was the mother of two daughters, ages 3 and 6. The older child had spent the night at her grandparents’ home next door. The 3-year-old was asleep in her bed at home when her mother’s body was discovered.

McCausland said investigators were at the Bell home again Tuesday as well as other locations in Aroostook County, but he would not say where.

Ouellette said police spent Monday and Tuesday talking to family, friends and other associates of Bell, including people whose children she watched.

State police on Monday questioned Laura Kirk, 33, of Limestone as a possible witness. Ouellette said Tuesday that Kirk was one of several people whose children were looked after by Bell.

According to Louise Atkinson, a child care specialist with the Bureau of Child and Family Services, Bell applied for a day care license from the state in late November. That licensing process had not been completed at the time of her death.

On her license application, Bell indicted she had been doing baby-sitting for relatives, her own children and a few other children in her home, Atkinson said Tuesday.

Bell earlier had moved her child care business from a site on Bog Road in Caswell to her home on Libby Road. Her husband, Troy, from who she had been separated for a couple of months, was living at the Bog Road location.

Police said Troy Bell has been very cooperative during their investigation.