Man, wife found dead in Parkman Officials suspect heat caused deaths

PARKMAN – The State Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct autopsies on the bodies of an elderly couple who were discovered dead on Independence Day in their Bennett Pond Road home.

The deaths of Leon Melvin, 70, and his wife, Ruth Melvin, 76, are not being treated as suspicious, according to Sgt. Christopher Coleman of the Maine State Police. Coleman said that most likely health problems combined with the hot, humid weather in the region were contributing factors in their deaths.

The cause of the deaths will be determined when the Medical Examiner’s Office conducts the autopsies within the next few days.

The medical examiner’s business office was closed Friday because of a mandatory furlough day for state workers ordered by Gov. Angus King.

Coleman said a family member who became concerned when the couple did not answer the telephone discovered the deaths at about 10:30 a.m. on July 4.

Dottie Alvino, a relative who lives near the couple, believes the hot conditions were a factor in their deaths.

“They lived in an older-model mobile home with no shade, and their air conditioner had quit about a week ago,” said Alvino on Friday. She added that authorities told her phone records show someone was alive in the trailer the night of July 3.

Health care advocates remind the public to check on the elderly in very hot weather conditions. Dehydration and heat exhaustion occur more quickly in older people.