WATERVILLE, Maine — In an affidavit released Friday, Nicholas Lovejoy admitted to police that he shot Melissa Sousa with a revolver after she allegedly pushed him down a staircase and attempted to shoot him with a gun that didn’t fire.
Lovejoy told police he then rolled Sousa's body in a tarp and put the body in the basement.
Sousa, 29, was last seen Tuesday morning, Oct. 22, putting her 8-year-old twin daughters on the bus for school outside the 32 Gold St. home she shared with Lovejoy.
According to the affidavit, Lovejoy told police he tried to get up after Sousa threw him down a flight of stairs, but Sousa ran by him picked up a gun and attempted to shoot him. The gun did not fire.
Lovejoy said he then ran to a nearby bookcase in the living room, picked up a .38 caliber revolver and shot Melissa twice in the stomach, according to court documents.
He told police he went outside, retrieved a tarp, wrapped Sousa in it, duct-taped the tarp, and put her body in the basement.
Lovejoy told police that he keeps his guns loaded but never with a bullet in the chamber.
According to the affidavit, the couple's twin daughters told Waterville Police Officer Nate Bernier that their "dad was mad at mom because mom had a new boyfriend." The girls told the officer they had last seen their mom Tuesday morning when they left for school.
The girls told Officer Bernier that when Lovejoy tucked them in Tuesday night, he told them the police were going to come and take him away.
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Family and friends held a vigil outside Sousa's home Friday morning, many bringing purple flowers to raise awareness about domestic violence. Sousa's girls were as of October 25 in state care. A GoFundMe site has been set up to help Sousa's mother pay for the cost of her daughter's funeral.
Sousa's aunts told reporters on Friday that Sousa was afraid to leave Lovejoy because she didn't want to lose her children and that she was afraid to go to the police.
According to court documents, Sousa's friend Meghan Legasse, whom Sousa worked with at Dunkin' Donuts, had called Waterville police Tuesday just before 7 p.m. requesting a welfare check for her friend. Legasse told police that Lovejoy was abusive and threatened Sousa with guns all the time. Legasse was worried because no one had heard from Sousa all day and she had not been active on Facebook.
Legasse also provided officers with an audio recording in which Lovejoy could be heard racking a gun and saying he had two options, "kill you before I do that or kill you before I do that," according to the affidavit.
Nicholas' brother, Christopher Lovejoy, told police that his brother suffers from a traumatic brain injury. Christopher said his brother had been "crazy lately" and had been threatening Sousa and himself and that he was worried about Sousa's well being. According to court documents, Christopher Lovejoy also told police that Nicholas had been withdrawn lately.
Christopher told police Sousa confided that she had recently had an affair and that she had told Nicholas about it.
Initially, when police went to Sousa's home on Tuesday evening and spoke to Nicholas Lovejoy he told them that Sousa had left and he did not know where she was. Lovejoy told police Sousa had been acting weird the past few months, that she was depressed, that the couple had been arguing and that Sousa wanted to leave.
Lovejoy refused to let police officers into his house on Tuesday night. He told them after Sousa had put their daughters on the bus she took her phone and keys and walked to get them coffees but never returned. When police asked why Sousa had not taken her car, Lovejoy said she had lost her keys in the laundry and then corrected himself and said Sousa only took her phone.
Lovejoy told police he had been working on his four-wheeler in the basement all day long. Lovejoy refused to give police access to surveillance cameras the couple had.
According to the affidavit, after police left Lovejoy's home they watched him cleaning his house including mopping the floor, going to the kitchen sink with his mop and then observed Lovejoy stand at his front window and look up and down the street for several minutes at a time.
Later that evening police pulled Lovejoy over when he left his home around midnight for having a plate light out. They found a loaded rifle in the Lovejoy's jeep and charged him with child endangerment for leaving his young girls home alone.
When police went into the home to get the twin girls, court documents reveal they saw a red-brown stained towel, duct tape, cardboard with red-brown stain and a bottle of ammonia.
On Friday, friends and family remembered Sousa as a "wonderful mother" outside the home where she was found dead.