3 found dead in burning car in Maine parking lot

BANGOR, Maine (AP) — Surveillance video from a business shows headlights from several vehicles passing just minutes before a car burned with three people inside early Monday.

Stratham Tire manager Jeff Gordon said the video, provided to police, shows an orange glow just three minutes after the vehicles drove by. The burning car, off camera, was about 100 yards away in a different parking lot.

The burning car off Target Industrial Circle was reported by a radio announcer who saw flames on her way to work, and the bodies were found after the blaze was doused.

Flames coming from the car were so intense that it was difficult at times to tell what was burning, said Kat Walls, who dialed 911 to report the fire. The flames popped the car's tires and burst its windows.

"It was fully engulfed when I saw it. There was lots of popping and small booms," she said. "It was hard to tell it was a car at times because it was so engulfed."

The deaths were declared suspicious by the Bangor Police Department. The state's deputy chief medical examiner was on the scene to begin removing and identifying the bodies.

The car was parked near a business called Automatic Distributors, a parts and equipment wholesaler for all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, off-road motorcycles and other outdoor activities.

Police were reviewing surveillance video from other businesses, including Automatic Distributors.

Walls said that it never occurred to her that anyone might have been inside the vehicle and that she learned about the bodies when a detective arrived during her morning show at 97.1 the Bear.

"It was horrifying — the idea that I sat there and waited for the fire department while people were burning inside. I'm struggling with it, actually. It feels horrible," she said.