Police in Maine searching for a Florida firefighter missing for more a week have found a body in a wooded area near the town of Newburgh, just outside Bangor.
The identity of the body found Wednesday was not immediately released. The state medical examiner’s office was on the scene, Maine State Police said in a press release.
The discovery came one day after a suspect in the presumed slaying of 31-year-old Jerry Perdomo was arrested. Perdomo, who was a Seminole County, Fla., firefighter, was reported missing Feb. 16.
A Bangor, Maine, man, 24-year-old Daniel Porter, has been charged with murder.
According to an arrest warrant, Porter owed Perdomo $3,000 and told police the firefighter threatened him and his family during a game of pool.
A police investigation began after a woman described as Perdomo's girlfriend told police in Bangor that she last saw him Feb. 16 with a handgun and that he told her he was going to meet someone who owed him money.
According to the affidavit, Porter told police Perdomo was dead but would not say where his body was.
The affidavit also said Porter and Perdomo were involved in drugs and had exchanged death threats in January. Porter complained to police that a man he believed was Perdomo had thrown rocks at his house.
Each man told investigators he had been threatened by the other.
"Perdomo stated that he observed Porter with a machine gun and that Porter threatened to shoot him and put him through a wood chipper," according to the affidavit. "Porter stated that Perdomo threatened to cut off his hands and kill him."
The affidavit cites evidence showing that Porter drove Perdomo's rented car to a Wal-Mart store in Bangor and abandoned it, and threw a bag containing Perdomo's wallet, cell phones and keys into a trash container behind a Bangor supermarket.
Records also show that Porter and his girlfriend had purchased a handgun at a pawn shop on Jan. 20.
Earlier this week, in an interview from her home in Orange City, Fla., Perdomo's wife, Tonya, described the father of 3- and 10-year-old children as "a dedicated dad. He helps people out a lot."
The firefighter had left Florida in a rental car and told his wife he was going to see friends in Maine, which she said was not unusual because he had friends from all over.
Porter was arrested Tuesday at a home in Jackson, Maine, that was rented by Porter's father, Maine police said. The house is believed to be the last place Perdomo was seen alive, investigators said, according to ABC News.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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