WEST FORKS PLANTATION — First Assessor Donna G. Bulmer died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a state police spokesman said Friday.

Bulmer, 52, who moved to West Forks from Weeks Mills with her husband, Troy, in recent years, had been missing since the weekend.

Her body was found Thursday morning off a snowmobile trail, three-quarters of a mile from her house by a searcher and dog who had been hired by the family, said Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. He described her as having been despondent.

An official from the Office of Chief Medical Examiner examined the body Thursday night at a local funeral home and determined the cause of death.

McCausland said the medical examiner did not pinpoint the time or date of her death. Teams from Maine State Police and the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife had been searching for her since Monday.

McCausland said there was no suspicion that anyone else had been involved in her death

West Forks Town Clerk Rebecca Blake said Second Assessor Harry Abraham probably will assume the top two seats on the three-member board until new elections at the March Town Meeting. Joe Pierce is the town’s third assessor.

Blake said she was a friend of Bulmer. “I can’t think of anybody that saw it coming,” Blake said. “Everybody was shocked. Nobody had a clue that that was going to happen.”

Blake said Bulmer was an outdoors woman who enjoyed hunting and fishing.

Bulmer had been first assessor for only a short time, but had done a lot for the town, Blake said, including working to get the U.S. Cellular tower erected in West Forks and getting paperwork finished for a ballfield given to the town by Central Maine Power Co., Blake said

“She was a very friendly, outgoing person; always willing to help people if she could. She always seem like a really happy person,” Blake said. “She didn’t let anybody know that she was having problems.

“We’re all going to miss her very much.”

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com