PALMYRA – State police are investigating an altercation that started early Friday morning at a campground in Palmyra and eventually sent two young men to a local hospital with stab wounds.

Police were called around 3 a.m. after a motorist driving on Hartland Avenue (Route 152) in Pittsfield came upon a young man lying near the roadway.

“The motorist indicated it looked like the man had been beaten and stabbed,” Maine State Police Sgt. Jim Urquhart said early Friday evening.

The man, identified as Joseph Elston, 22, of Detroit, was taken to Sebasticook Valley Hospital in Pittsfield and treated for facial lacerations and superficial stab wounds to his arm, Urquhart said.

“We tried to interview him at the hospital but he was sedated and had been drinking so we didn’t get much from him,” the sergeant said.

Instead, Urquhart and others went back to the scene, which happened to be adjacent to Nature’s Way campground in nearby Palmyra.

“In talking with some campers there, we discovered that there was some sort of altercation between [Elston] and another man involving a knife,” Urquhart said.

The other man, John Haskell, 22, of Pittsfield, also suffered stab wounds to his abdomen. He drove himself to the Pittsfield hospital later in the day but his injuries were not serious, according to Urquhart.

As of late Friday, police still hadn’t determined who produced the 9-inch hunting knife. Elston and Haskell knew each other, but police did not know the extent of their relationship.

“We have an indication that there was an unknown female involved as well,” Urquhart said, although he declined to elaborate or release her name.

Haskell was arrested Friday afternoon at Sebasticook Valley Hospital on warrants related to several outstanding fines. He was taken to Somerset County Jail and was still there as of Friday evening, according to a jail official, but Urquhart stressed that he has not been charged in the stabbing incident.

The case is still under investigation and no one is expected to be charged until the District Attorney’s Office has a chance to review the case, Urquhart said.

erussell@bangordailynews.net

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