Authorities confirm a body has been found in the basement of a missing Maine woman's home.
Police in Waterville, Maine, have been searching for 29-year-old Melissa Sousa, a mother who was last seen on Tuesday morning putting her twin girls on a school bus by her house on Gold Street.
According to Maine State Police, Sousa is originally from the Haverill area of Massachusetts.
Authorities said around 10:45 p.m. Wednesday that a body had been found and removed from the basement of the home. The deceased person has not been identified.
Friends reported Sousa missing Tuesday night, and Waterville police have asked state police to assist them in the investigation. A team of state police detectives and evidence technicians are in Waterville and have joined local police in their investigation.
Sousa was last seen around 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday putting her daughters on the bus near the duplex home at 32 Gold St. where she lives with her children and their father, 28-year-old Nicholas Lovejoy.
Lovejoy was arrested by Waterville police around midnight Tuesday after his SUV was stopped on Summer Street, police said. He was charged with having a loaded rifle in the car an endangering the welfare of a child, as he had left his kids alone at home.
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Police said Lovejoy was interviewed by investigators on Wednesday morning and is cooperating with them. He is being held at the Kennebec County Jail on $2,000 bail.
A co-worker told Newscenter Maine that Lovejoy and Sousa came to Maine from Massachusetts. Sousa has a brother in New Hampshire and her mother lives in Massachusetts.
Sousa is 5' tall, weighs 125 pounds and has brown hair and hazel eyes. Anyone with information is asked to call Waterville police at 207-680-4700, ext. 4513.
