DEXTER -- Police said a man from rural Wellington shot and killed his estranged wife and the couple's two children Monday morning at the woman's home in Dexter, then shot and killed himself.
AFTERMATH: Relatives of the victims gather in the early afternoon about a mile from where police say Steven Lake, 37, shot and killed his estranged wife and two children inside their home in Dexter on Monday. Authorities said Lake, free on bail, but barred from contacting his family, was awaiting trial for allegedly holding his family hostage last year.
Maj. Gary Wright, head of the State Police Criminal Division, said schoolteacher Amy Lake, 38, and her children Monica, 12, and Coty, 13, died of gunshot wounds. Steven Lake, 37, owner of Lake's Family Heating in nearby Harmony, was the shooter, he said.
Wright said police found a shotgun near the bodies and also found that some sort of accelerant, such as gasoline, had been spread inside the house on picturesque Shore Road, but it wasn't ignited.
Police are calling the incident a "despicable case of domestic violence."
Investigators can't say for sure what pushed Steven Lake over the edge, Wright said, but a relative told The Associated Press that Lake was frustrated by an ongoing custody dispute and particularly upset at having to miss his son's eighth-grade graduation.
Wright said the arrival of a Dexter police officer Monday morning may have caught Steven Lake by surprise, prompting him to take quick action and pulling the trigger.
Employees at a Dexter school where Amy Lake was a teacher and her two children were students called police to report they had not shown up for school Monday.
Wright said a school employee drove by the house and saw Steven Lake's Jeep parked in the yard. Lake had been prohibited from having contact with his wife or the two children.
"There was a protective order and bail conditions from a June 2010 domestic situation where he held his family hostage," Wright said. Steven Lake was awaiting trial for that incident in Wellington, Wright said. He was free on bail.
When Dexter police Officer Kevin Wintell arrived at the house about 8 a.m., he reported hearing multiple gunshots from inside the house. Police from several law enforcement agencies went to the scene. State police negotiators tried in vain for more than two hours to contact Lake, by phone and a public address system. Police never made contact with those inside, but they didn't know for sure whether people were alive inside the house.
Around 2 p.m., a state police armored vehicle with a battering ram moved in on the house, and officers discovered the bodies in the living room. Some of the victims had been shot multiple times, according to the State Medical Examiner's Office.
Diana Wood, an employee at the Harmony Country Store, said Amy Lake was a kind, generous person.
"Amy was one of the sweetest most genuine people that there is. She had a heart of gold," Wood, 28, said. "The kids were just like her. You couldn't get a better person."
Wood said both Steven and Amy grew up in Wellington. She said Amy's mother, Linda Bagley, would babysit her, beginning when Diana was 4; and Amy was always there, helping out with the younger children.
"Amy had a heart of gold, just like her mom," Wood said.
Tracy Morrison, owner of a garage and logging business in Harmony, said he has known both the Bagleys and the Lakes for many years. He said Amy and Steve had a troubled relationship. Morrison said Amy Lake moved with the children to Dexter after they split up in 2010.
"It was just a nasty divorce," Morrison said.
The 2 1/2-story, red, vinyl-sided farmhouse stands on a small hill on the far side of the shore of Lake Wassookeag. The house is about a mile from Route 23, the Moose Head Trail to Greenville.
"There is an indication that there were accelerants in the house that had been dispersed. We don't know when he showed up, but he obviously showed up with the intent of causing harm," Wright said from the scene. "Probably his plan was interrupted by the officer, and that's when he heard the shots."
An initial examination by the state medical examiner indicated that the four died about 8 a.m.
Mylon Lake, of Harmony, told the AP that Steven Lake was his nephew and had been angry about a child custody dispute. Steven and Amy Lake at one time had shared custody, but Steven had recently lost his right to see the children.
"You push buttons enough, and everything's going to come to a head," he said.
Steven Lake once owned his own heating company in Harmony, but most recently worked for another company, Mylon Lake said.
Neighbor Phil Kreider said local police officers had been checking on Amy Lake every day because she had a restraining order on her husband.
"I can't imagine anything like this happening here, and here it is," Kreider said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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