BANGOR – A man was taken into custody Friday afternoon in connection with last week’s killing in rural Hancock County, ending 12 days of suspicion surrounding Tad Howard’s death.

John J. Turner, 34, of Bangor was arrested at about 2 p.m. at Acadia Hospital, a mental health facility in Bangor, according to Maine State Police spokesman Stephen McCausland.

Turner has been charged with murder in the death of Howard, a 27-year-old man from Ellsworth whose body was found in a ditch on July 9 in the northwestern Hancock County town of Amherst.

McCausland declined to release further details related to the arrest, but he did say Turner and Howard knew each other.

Police initially had been withholding the cause of Howard’s death, but McCausland confirmed Friday that the man died from a gunshot wound.

After his arrest, Turner was taken on Friday afternoon to Hancock County Jail in Ellsworth, where he will remain until he makes his first appearance in court on Monday, McCausland said.

“At this point, I think we’re going to hold back on details, but I suspect more information will come out in court next week,” he said.

Police have been investigating the death of Howard for several days, but have released few details.

His body was discovered in a ditch in a new subdivision in Amherst, just off Route 9. An employee of the landowner was mowing grass in the area when he stumbled upon the body, according to police.

The body was identified by the State Medical Examiner’s Office last week as Howard, but police did not classify his death as a homicide until earlier this week.

At a memorial service held Tuesday in Trenton, several family members and friends remembered Howard as a young man of great faith who lived his life for the present rather than the future.

Reached at her home in Ellsworth on Friday afternoon, Howard’s mother, Lucy Howard, said she was aware that an arrest had been made in connection with her son’s slaying but declined to comment further.

As for Turner, McCausland said he knew little about the murder suspect.

“We had been looking at him for at least a week,” the police spokesman said, adding that the state Attorney General’s Office authorized Turner’s arrest.

Turner was located by state police at Acadia Hospital, but McCausland said he did not know why the man was there.

A criminal history record on Turner on file with the Maine State Bureau of Identification indicates he was convicted in 1993 in 4th District Court in Calais on a misdemeanor charge of possession of a concealed weapon.

Turner also served time in jail related to a felony theft conviction in 2003 and was charged with misdemeanor theft in 2006.