Memorial services for the three victims of last week’s Oakland shooting will be held this weekend, while police say there is no new information on why it happened.

Sisters Amanda Bragg, 30, and Amy Derosby, 28, as well as Michael Muzerolle, 29, were killed the night of Nov. 4, when Herman DeRico, 42, opened fire with a handgun in the 41 Belgrade Road house the four lived in. After killing the three adults in the building’s first-floor apartment, DeRico shot and killed himself in the driveway.

Bragg and Muzerolle’s 3-year-old daughter, Arianna, was the only survivor of the shooting.

A celebration of Muzerolle’s life was held Friday evening in a private ceremony at the American Legion hall on Church Street in Oakland.

Services for Bragg and Derosby will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Light House Ministry Center on High Street in Oakland.

All three grew up in the Waterville area. Muzerolle was an Oakland native.

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Reached by telephone Friday, Jackie Bragg, the sisters’ mother, declined an interview request.

In the immediate aftermath, Maine State Police investigators said they did not know what set DeRico off and caused him to kill three other people.

On Friday, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said detectives still do not have a motive for the murders.

“The key people that could help tell us that were all victims of the homicide last week,” McCausland said.

Detectives have interviewed friends and family to try and shed some light on what sparked the violence and the investigation is ongoing, McCausland added.

According to police, Derosby called 911 after being shot and gave first responders valuable information about the scene.

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Hundreds of people attended a candlelight vigil Sunday at the Oakland boat launch, just around the corner from the house where the shooting took place.

Residents of the quiet neighborhood interviewed after the shooting said the family was quiet and kept mostly to themselves. Muzerolle, who attended Messalonskee High School and was a graduate of Waterville Adult Education, was well known for doing odd jobs for his neighbors. In his obituary, Muzerolle is remembered as a prankster who loved to laugh.

According to obituaries of Braggand Derosby, the sisters were born in Waterville and grew up in Vassalboro. Bragg’s obituary describes her as a “lover of home and hearth” who was shy and reserved and liked to spend her time with small groups of family and friends. She was a Winslow High School graduate.

Derosby, on the other hand, was described as a fun-loving social butterfly who had many friends. Her passions were music, especially the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia, and she loved animals, including her dog, Milo, and cat, Otis, who lived with her at the time of the shooting.

Her obituary asks that people visit Milo at the Humane Society Waterville Area. “He needs a good home that will love him and care for him as much as Amy did,” the obituary says.

The shooting was reported shortly after 8 p.m. Jason Thomas, a next-door neighbor, said he had heard a commotion before gunshots rang out and a woman pleading for help.

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DeRico and Derosby lived in an upstairs apartment in the two-story family home, Bragg and Muzerolle lived downstairs with their daughter. All three victims were found by police in the first-floor apartment. DeRico’s body was found in the driveway, steps away from the house. The 9 mm handgun used in the shooting was found next to his body.

A ceremony for DeRico is scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday at Lawrence Brothers Funeral Home in Selma, Alabama, an employee there confirmed Friday. Police said they contacted DeRico’s mother in California and grandmother in Alabama after the shooting. His obituary in the Selma Times-Journal said he’s survived by his mother, Patricia DeRico.

This story has been corrected to reflect Herman DeRico’s relationship to Patricia DeRico.

Peter McGuire — 861-9239

pmcguire@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @PeteL_McGuire


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