Man Charged In Griswold Home Explosion
Police Say Murder-Suicide Note Found In Mailbox
POSTED: 9:24 am EST January 5,
2009
UPDATED: 7:35 pm EST January 5,
2009
GRISWOLD, Conn. -- Connecticut State Police have charged a Griswold man with arson after an explosion and fire leveled his house and a body was found in a nearby wooded area Monday morning.Thirty-four-year-old Carson Mueller, 34, was arrested Monday afternoon after he was treated at Backus Hospital in Norwich. He's being held on $1 million bond and is set to be arraigned in Norwich Superior Court on Tuesday.Police said the body was found in Pachaug State Forest, a short distance from Mueller's Griswold home, which was leveled in the explosion.Authorities did not identify the dead person, but said it appeared to be a female victim. They said they don't expect to find any other victims.State police said an apparent murder-suicide note had been found earlier in the home's mailbox.State police said that crews were called to a fire on Richardson Hill Road at about 5:30 a.m. after the house blew up.Michele Walworth, who lives nearby, said she ran to check on her children after hearing a boom.“I came into the kitchen, I kind of saw light coming from the back door and when I opened the blinds I saw the whole top of the hill on fire,” she said.Police said the note indicated a murder-suicide had occurred in the house, which prompted a search of the rubble."We found what appeared to be a murder-suicide note and not all the information contained in that note was factual," said Lt. J. Paul Vance, a state police spokesman.Police said the person believed to have written the note was involved in a car crash early Monday.The house was owned by Carson and his mother, Denise Mueller, 69, The Day of New London reported.Authorities were investigating the cause of the explosion."It's believed to be an accelerant," Vance said.Asked if Carson wrote the note, state police Lt. J. Paul Vance said, "Certainly we believe he may have."Investigators were trying to determine who wrote the note and what caused the explosion.Gerald Nauss, a neighbor, said the explosion shook his house."I would say it was like a bomb," said Nauss, a U.S. Army veteran. "I looked out the window and the flames were 25 to 30 feet in the air."Nauss said a woman and her son lived at the house for several years."They were very, very quiet," Nauss said. "I never heard any problems."
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