AUGUSTA — A New York man is expected to make his first court appearance Wednesday on a charge of murder after a homicide investigation on Washington Street, where neighbors reported loud thudding coming from a fourth-floor apartment Monday night, followed by a large police response.
Killed in the apartment was Joseph Marceau, 31, a resident of Winthrop Street in Augusta, police said Tuesday night.
An autopsy was done Tuesday, but no cause of death was released.
Marceau’s relatives were told of his death Tuesday evening.
State and Augusta police continued to search for the two residents of the apartment where the body was found.
Police say Marceau was found dead Monday night in the apartment at 75 Washington St. when police responded to a report of a disturbance about 8 p.m., according to a news release from the Maine State Police.
Damik Davis, 25, of New York is being held in the Kennebec County jail on a charge of murder. He is expected to make an initial court appearance Wednesday at the Capital Judicial Center.
Police were at the apartment all night collecting evidence, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine State Police, and state and city police vehicles remained there Tuesday.
An autopsy of the victim’s body was done Tuesday, but the Medical Examiner’s Office in Augusta said the office would not release any other information because the case is under investigation, said Mark Belserene, office administrator.
McCausland said that after the victim was found, a search of the neighborhood by police, aided by a state police dog, located Davis, who was taken into custody.
According to records from New York state, Davis was convicted of robbery in Queens County, New York, and remains under parole supervision for that offense.
On Tuesday morning, McCausland said police were looking for Sean McQuade, 45, and Zena Fritze, 27, who lived in the apartment where the dead man was found. McQuade also is known as Michael Sean McQuade.
“Detectives say they need to locate the two for questioning and to check on their well-being,” McCausland said. “They have not been seen since Monday.”
On Tuesday morning the four-story, white apartment building and its parking lot were blocked off with yellow police tape.
Residents and neighbors gathered outside in the cold, talking to one another and to various news media representatives.
When the light fixtures in their third-floor apartment started shaking because of thudding in the apartment above theirs about 8 p.m. Monday, Timothy and Kelly Lane called 911.
“We thought it was maybe a domestic dispute and called police,” Lane said.
Lane, who lives with his wife, Kelly, and their two children, said police responded to their call immediately.
“We knew right away it was bad,” Timothy Lane said. “The whole block was shut off.”
Neither they nor others who live in the building said they knew of Davis, but they said that a number of visitors frequented the eight-unit building, which houses eight school-age children and some younger ones.
However, they did know Fritze and McQuade and said they had not seen them Tuesday. They also said no children were living with the couple in their fourth-floor apartment.
The Lanes and others said they believed the couple were due to move out Tuesday because they had been served with an eviction notice. Records at the Capital Judicial Center show that the landlord, Kane Coffin, had obtained a writ of possession Nov. 12 for the premises and a court order saying the couple had to move out within 48 hours of receiving the notice.
In seeking the writ, Coffin said that he wanted to terminate the lease for nonpayment of rent and that the couple owed $8,303.
A separate filing in the same court indicated McQuade and Fritze’s monthly rent for the three-bedroom unit was $800.
Samarali Daniels, who lives on the building’s second floor with her four children, said she heard a loud thudding on the building’s back stairs about 10 minutes before Augusta police arrived.
“It sounded like someone coming down really loudly or throwing something down the stairs,” she said.
Police told her to gather her children in one of the bedrooms until it was determined that the building was cleared and safe.
The residents said they heard no gunshots or anything that would lead them to believe someone had been shot.
Kelly Lane and Daniels said they each have reported to police that they believed there was illegal drug activity in the building. They said the situation had been improving until some new tenants moved in.
Augusta Deputy Police Chief Jared Mills said via email that police have received reports of illegal drugs on Washington Street, but he would need to search further to see whether any of those calls were related to 75 Washington St.
McCausland indicated about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday that no more information was available about whether any drugs were at the scene.
On May 9, Augusta police reported arresting Fritze, then identified as Zina Fritze-McQuade, and Michael Sean McQuade, then 44. The two were charged with theft by unauthorized taking or transfer after police responded to a report of a burglary in progress on Kendall Street.
No complaint was filed in the case against Michael Sean McQuade, and his $1,500 cash bail was refunded.
There was no court record of any charge stemming from that incident relating to Zina Fritze. However, Augusta court records show she was convicted previously of theft and operating after suspension.
Marceau, the homicide victim, had a criminal record dating back to 2007, according to records from the State Bureau of Identification. All of the offenses were misdemeanors. He was convicted of theft, violating conditions of release, burglary of a motor vehicle, violating a protective order, misuse of public benefits, and criminal trespassing.
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