Police say that Robert Tilden, 50, and his brother-in-law Russell Pinkham, also 50, both were shot and killed around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday by Tilden’s son, Leon R. Tilden, at the family compound on Mud Creek Road.

Leon Tilden, 27, died hours later, after Maine State Police and other law enforcement agencies began a manhunt for him in the area. According to police, the younger Tilden was armed when he was encountered on the property by a member of the Maine State Police Tactical Team around 10 a.m. and shot, police said Tuesday. Leon Tilden was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where he died of his injuries later that morning.

State police continued Wednesday morning to investigate and collect evidence at the scene of the shootings. Police are expected to be at the property for much of the day.

Stan Olencki, who lives on the other side of Mud Creek Road from the Tildens, said Wednesday that he considered Robert Tilden a good friend. Olencki and his wife bought their property from the Pinkham family when they moved to Maine from New Jersey in 2000. Lori Tilden, Leon’s mother and Robert’s wife, is Russell Pinkham’s sister.

Olencki said Robert Tilden was “the ideal entrepreneur,” dabbling in different kinds of seasonal work to support his family.

“He made Christmas wreaths. He did a lot of chainsaw art,” Olencki said. “He’ll be dearly missed.”

Olencki said there were problems between Robert Tilden and Leon Tilden, but he did not go into detail and said he wasn’t exactly sure what may have caused the friction. He said both father and son were known to have firearms.

He said that, not long ago, he heard gunshots coming from the woods across the road on the Tilden’s property. Olencki said he wasn’t overly concerned about the gunshots, but went over to ask Robert Tilden about it. Leon, apparently, was shooting targets of some sort, he said.

That’s when Tilden told him he was worried about his son.

“He was afraid his son was going to kill him,” Olencki said. “He wasn’t joking.”

Olencki said he has been thinking a lot about Tilden’s remark since Tuesday morning.

“Maybe there is something I could have done,” the neighbor said. “It’s so senseless. I’ve been having trouble sleeping, to be honest with you.”

Other neighbors and local residents who were asked Wednesday morning about the Tildens said they did not want to comment.

In addition to making wreaths and carving wood, Robert Tilden dug for clams and bloodworms.

At one point, Tilden appeared on on an episode of Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs,” to show host Mike Rowe how to dig for bloodworms.

In an article published in 1998 in the Bangor Daily News, the elder Tilden was quoted about his efforts to cultivate oysters in a tidal creek just down the road from his home.

“My first love was the ocean,” the article quoted Robert Tilden as saying. “I actually feel more proud of my oysters than anything else in my life. They’re like your babies.”

Stu Marckoon, an administrative assistant to the board of selectmen, said Russell Pinkham worked as a truck driver.

“Both of them were the nicest guys you’d want to meet,” Marckoon said of Robert Tilden and Russell Pinkham. “They were delightful when they’d come into the office to transact whatever they needed to transact. They were just good down-to-earth folks.”

According to Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland, the on-scene investigation is expected to continue through Wednesday.

“I’m not anticipating we’re going to have solid answers today,” McCausland said Wednesday morning in a phone interview. “We have a team of detectives back at the scene gathering evidence, concentrated on the initial double-homicide.”

McCausland did provide some additional details of the initial double homicide: The elder Tilden and Pinkham were both found dead outside the family home. Tilden’s body was found in the driveway; Pinkham’s was in a grassy area near the house.

Leon Tilden fired multiple shots when he killed his relatives, McCausland said.

“There were a number of shots fired. … The question is the cause of death. We’ll await the medical examiner’s decision as to how many times the two victims were struck.”

All three bodies are at the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta, where an autopsy is expected Thursday.

McCausland also said Tilden had been living in a “camp-like building” behind his family’s home when the shooting occurred. Police recovered a number of guns on the property, including handguns and long guns.

As for what led up to the double homicide, McCausland said police are still searching for answers.

“We don’t have a solid answer as to what set him off,” he said. “We’re talking to relatives — the immediate family — and friends.”

The fatal shooting is the second in Lamoine in the past seven months. In March, Ellsworth resident Lawrence “Randy” Sinclair was killed and three others wounded — including the alleged shooter — when gunfire erupted outside a local home on Route 184.

Local resident Michael Carter, 30, is facing charges of murder, elevated aggravated assault, aggravated assault and illegal possession of a firearm in connection with the March shooting. Carter is expected to face trial on those charges sometime next year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Follow BDN reporters Bill Trotter and Mario Moretto on Twitter at @billtrotter and at@riocarmine, respectively.