OWLS HEAD — A South Thomaston woman was arrested Friday afternoon and charged with murder in the death of 83-year-old Helen Carver, whose body was found covered with blood Thursday in her Owls Head home.

Sarah Richards, 37, was arrested by the Maine State Police, according to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

An autopsy completed Friday by the state Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Carver died from blunt force trauma.

Richards was held Friday night at the Knox County Jail in Rockland and will likely make her first court appearance Monday afternoon in Rockland.

Richards had been hired by Carver to shovel her walkway and driveway during the winter, according to McCausland.

Richards has a criminal record under her former married name, Sarah Stalcup. She was convicted along with her then husband of stealing more than 100 lobster crates from Fox Island Lobster in Cushing in 2013. The couple had worked at the business.

She received a nine-month jail term in 2016 for unlawful trafficking in drugs. In June 2017, she was sentenced to 30 days in jail for violating the probation from the drug conviction.

The Knox County Sheriff’s Office responded at 1:30 p.m. Thursday to a report of a woman found covered in blood at the 20 S. Shore Drive residence.

Several state police detectives and a representative from the medical examiner’s office arrived at the home after the discovery.

A Knox County sheriff’s cruiser remained in the driveway of the house overnight and was still there Friday evening.

Yellow police tape was stretched in front of the residence.

Carver and her husband, Robert Carver, operated Carver’s Market in Thomaston from 1977 to 1989, when they sold the business. He died in 2012. The couple were married for 55 years.

She lived alone, according to police.

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