Two who died in fire had threatened suicide

EUSTIS – A state trooper checked on the well-being of two women hours before they died in a house fire, investigators said.

The bodies of Barbara J. Purnell, 52, and Linda McMillan, 59, were found in chairs in the living room after firefighters doused the blaze in their home, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

The fire was reported at 11:30 p.m. Monday, just hours after a trooper had checked on the women because they had threatened to commit suicide in a letter mailed to an out-of-state relative, McCausland said.

The women indicated to Trooper Scott Dalton that they were fine and that sending the letter was a mistake, McCausland said. They declined counseling.

Investigators believe one of the women set the fire after the trooper left, McCausland said. Autopsies were being conducted by the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta.

The women had no family in Maine. The letter in which the women threatened to commit suicide was mailed to an aunt in New Jersey, said state police Sgt. Walter Grzyb.