AUGUSTA — The Monday deaths under investigation on Augusta’s Northern Avenue are a murder-suicide, police said.
According to Maine State Police, Loryn McCollett, 30, was stabbed to death by her boyfriend, Eric Ryan, also 30. Ryan shot and killed himself Monday as Augusta police were entering the apartment where they lived.
In a news release issued Tuesday, state police said detectives continue to investigate while evidence technicians work in the apartment.
Police at the scene Monday indicated that McCollett had been dead for some time.
On Tuesday, Ray Dobbins, property manager for the building, said Augusta police contacted him Monday afternoon saying they had received a report of a deceased person in the apartment, and they needed a key to get in.
Dobbins said he sent a maintenance worker with a key sometime after 2:30 p.m., and after the door was opened, the worker heard “something” as he was headed down the stairs.
“They don’t know quite what they heard,” he said.
Two bodies were discovered Monday at 93 Northern Ave. in Augusta. The bodies were located in apartment on the third floor of the building, at left, across Kendall Street from St. Michael’s Parish. Police said Tuesday the case remains under investigation. Kennebec Journal photo by Andy Molloy
Dobbins said 93 Northern Ave. is a quiet building without a lot of turnover. Derrick Davis has lived in that apartment for two years. McCollett was Davis’s roommate, Dobbins said, and Ryan, who was in a relationship with McCollett, was living there as well.
An Augusta police officer initially responded to a request at 1:27 p.m., Monday for a well-being check. Over the next two hours, seven more officers responded, as well as emergency medical staff.
On Monday night, Augusta and Maine State Police confirmed that a man and a woman had been found dead in the apartment, and that while entering the apartment, Augusta police heard a gunshot.
Autopsies were expected to take place Tuesday or Wednesday at the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Augusta.
Loryn McCollett
Michael McCollett Jr., McCollett’s brother, said Tuesday his sister and Ryan had been in a relationship for a couple years.
“I reached out to her on Oct. 25 for her birthday, and I didn’t get a response back,” Michael McCollett said. “The last time I physically saw her was May 24, the day after she gave birth to her baby.”
Michael McCollett said he thought the baby was with Ryan’s mother.
He described his sister’s relationship with Ryan as volatile.
“She would talk about it and post certain incidents on Facebook,” Michael McCollett said. “We weren’t certain what to believe because there are two sides to every story.”
He said he and his siblings grew up in Augusta, and graduated from Monmouth Academy, but found their way back to Augusta as adults.
“She was probably one of the most resilient, strongest people I knew, with everything she had gone through, whether it was her medical history and upbringing,” Michael McCollett said.
Loryn McCollett was born with Poland syndrome, he said, which is characterized by an underdeveloped limb. Michael McCollett said his sister’s right arm was shorter than the other and had only two digits
“It was very hard on her in growing up and in school,” he said, but that didn’t slow her down; growing up, she played sports and basketball was her favorite.
“She liked writing lyrics and poems and mini-novels and stuff like that,” Michael McCollett said. “She was really gifted with that. If she wrote about something that reminded her of someone she would send it to that person. I think my mom has some.”
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