© David LohrPolice in Plymouth, Mass., suspect Keith Lincoln killed himself and his wife, Jettie, with a circular saw - similar to the one pictured.
The alleged crime was revealed at approximately 10 p.m. on Monday, when police officers in the historic town of Plymouth, located about 40 miles south of Boston, were dispatched to a residence on Farmhurst Road. Out-of-state family members had been unable to reach the residents, Keith Lincoln, 49, and his wife, Jettie, 46, for several days and requested a well-being check.
Upon arrival, officers announced their presence at the door. When they peered through a window of the home they were able to see Keith Lincoln standing in the living room area. It was at that point, the Plymouth District Attorney's office said, that officers observed Lincoln "pick up a power circular saw, inflicting serious injury to one of his legs."
The officers immediately forced entry into the home and provided first-aid to Lincoln. When paramedics arrived on the scene, they transported him to Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
The full extent of the horrific scene became evident to police when they conducted a cursory search of the home, at which time they located a deceased female, believed to be Jettie Lincoln, as well as two deceased dogs.
Assistant District Attorney Bridget Norton Middleton said the condition of the female victim's body made a visible identification impossible because of "trauma to the body."
"[We] can't do a visual," Middleton told The Huffington Post. "Investigators are still working to confirm her identification. Due to the condition of her body, that has been a little challenging."
Middleton declined to elaborate further on the state of the victim's body and said positive identification will be completed using dental records.
Calls to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner were not immediately returned on Wednesday.
Police said a cause of death for the dogs is not yet known.
Probate and family court records obtained by The Boston Globe reportedly show that Keith Lincoln was born in nearby Weymouth and had worked as a well-driller in the 1980s. The newspaper reported he divorced his first wife, with whom he had a son and a daughter, in 2003.
Following Lincoln's divorce from his first wife, he married Jettie, and the couple lived for a time in Vermont, where he worked as a carpenter, before moving to Plymouth in July. The couple rented their Farmhurst Road home from local resident Tim Moll, who described them to reporters Wednesday as good tenants.
"I checked their references when I rented it to them, and their prior landlords said, if anything, they were too quiet," Moll told reporters outside the home.
Middleton said authorities have yet to determine a possible motive for the apparent murder-suicide, which she described as "certainly violent." Authorities have not found a suicide note or a feasible explanation for it.
"Nope, nothing," the assistant district attorney said, adding, "[there had been] no domestic dispute calls to the house [and] no history of domestic disputes that we are aware of."
Keith Lincoln's parents are equally baffled.
"What led up to this, we have no idea," his father, William Lincoln, of North Carolina, told The Boston Herald. "That's why it makes what happened all the harder to digest."
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