CARIBOU, Maine - Investigators have information linking a farmer who died of a gunshot wound to the arsenic poisonings at a church lunch that killed one person and sickened more than a dozen others, authorities said Saturday. The motive was still under investigation. The shooting of Daniel Bondeson, 53, was reported to emergency officials Friday as self-inflicted, but investigators are awaiting autopsy results before officially announcing the cause of death, said Col. Michael Sperry, head of the Maine State Police. Fifteen people were hospitalized and the 78-year-old caretaker at Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church in New Sweden died after drinking arsenic-laced coffee at a church reception on April 27. Two of the victims were still in critical condition Saturday. Bondeson, a longtime member of the church, was found wounded in the entryway to his farmhouse on Friday and died hours later. His farm is a few miles from the church. Bondeson was not among the roughly 40 people who attended services at Gustaf Adolph on April 27, and Sperry would not say if he had attended a church bake sale the day before. Bondeson's farmhouse still was being searched on Saturday and Sperry would not say if a suicide note was found or what information investigators had linking Bondeson to the poisonings. He said investigators were still seeking to determine if the gunshot wound was self-inflicted as well as other evidence. ``This is an open investigation. We're still looking at who was involved in this. But the shooting provided some significant information to guide us,'' Sperry said. ``We're looking into motive. We have developed information in the last 24 hours to indicate what that motive may be,'' he added. Police have not ruled out the possibility that more than one person was behind the poisonings. Investigators also searched a shed behind the white farmhouse. Authorities have said many farmers in this rural area still own now-banned pesticides that contain arsenic. Bondeson was a potato farmer who also had worked as a nursing aide, substitute gym teacher and ski coach, residents said. Following his father's death a few years ago, he often lived alone on the family farm, though his sister Norma also lived there from time to time. Alwin Espling, 75, a distant relative, said Bondeson was an avid runner and cross-country skier who never married and often stayed to himself. Wendell Spooner, a longtime acquaintance, said he and Bondeson had once served together on the church council. He said some of those sickened by the arsenic were among Bondeson's friends.
