Girls killed in Mechanic Falls suffered stab wounds and other injuries

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The Maine medical examiner has determined that one of the girls found at a Mechanic Falls home on Saturday died from stab wounds. The other died from “multiple injuries.”

The deaths of 7-year-old Hope West and 11-year-old Harmony West have been ruled homicides, according to Shannon Moss, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Their bodies were discovered Saturday afternoon inside a Highland Avenue apartment in the Androscoggin County town, along with the body of Jennifer Barney, 37, according to the Mechanic Falls Police Department.

Barney’s cause of death has not been determined by the state medical examiner at this time, although her death has been ruled a suicide.

Officials have not disclosed any details about the circumstances of the deaths or the relationship between Barney and the two West girls.

Neighbors told the Sun Journal that a mother and her two daughters lived in a second-floor apartment there with two dogs.

But the girls, who frequently jumped on a trampoline in the front yard and attended summer school, hadn’t been seen in weeks. Neither had neighbors seen the family’s dogs, the Sun Journal reported.