FRYEBURG — State police say a Fryeburg man fatally shot his wife Monday afternoon and turned the gun on himself. 

Maine State Police spokesperson Stephen McCausland identified the victim as 52-year-old Jody Buzzell, whose body was found at the West Fryeburg Road home she shared with her husband, Mark Buzzell, also 52, early Tuesday morning. 

Police conducted an “intense manhunt” Monday evening after relatives called police to the home because Mark Buzzell had apparently told them he had killed his wife.

After several hours, members of the Maine State Police tactical team entered the home around 1 a.m. Tuesday and found Jody Buzzell’s body in a first-floor room. 

Mark Buzzell left a note and also told family members he had killed his wife, according to McCausland. His body was found at around 5 a.m. Tuesday at a vacant home next door owned by a family member.

The incident began around 4:30 p.m. Monday when local police, Maine State Police Tactical Team, New Hampshire State Police and the Major Crimes Unit responded to the home, located a few hundred feet from the New Hampshire state line.  

Police and members of the Fryeburg Fire Department blocked off the road, also known as Route 113, for 12 hours Monday evening into Tuesday morning.

The death is the first homicide in Maine this year, according to McCausland. 

The bodies were removed to a local funeral home and will be transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Augusta on Wednesday, McCausland said.