Flowers are left outside the Cool Street home in Waterville where the body of Charles Bellows, 43, of Waterville, was discovered Sunday morning. Maine State Police detectives have arrested Thomas Lowrie, 41, of Waterville, on a charge of murder. Amy Calder/Morning Sentinel

WATERVILLE — Charles Bellows was struggling with alcohol and sometimes drug abuse, but he was trying hard to get sober for his kids when he was killed earlier this week, a longtime friend said Thursday.

Charles Bellows in shown a photo posted by family recently on his Facebook page. Photo courtesy of Jeff Douglass

Bellows, 43, had been staying at 119 Cool St. for about the last six months, according to Jeff Douglass, 47, of Fairfield. Douglass said he had been friends with Bellows since childhood.

Thomas Lowrie, 41, who lived at 119 Cool St., is charged in connection with the killing of Bellows, who died of sharp force injuries, according to Maine State Police. The Maine Office of the Chief Medical Examiner conducted an autopsy Monday.

Douglass said Lowrie, who worked at Hannaford, was renting the house and that various people stayed there on and off.

“I think it was because of hardships, that he was staying there,” Douglass said of Bellows. “It’s been hard since COVID. People have been struggling.”

Bellows hadn’t been working because of a back injury he suffered as a child, when he and Douglass jumped out of a window, Douglass said.

The pair got into trouble as youths growing up in Waterville’s South End and ended up in the Maine Youth Center, where they lived several years until they were 18 and graduated from the James Madison School at the center, according to Douglass.

Douglass said he turned his life around and has a family, so Bellows knew not to come around when he was drinking or doing drugs. Douglass said he hadn’t been communicating with Bellows the last few weeks because of that.

“He didn’t bring it around me and my kids,” he said.

But despite Bellows’ struggles, Douglass described him as a talented musician, singer and rapper, a great story teller and a loyal friend for many years.

“You couldn’t ask for a more loyal person,” Douglass said. “You couldn’t ask for a better friend. He’d always show up in the worst situations. He didn’t care. He’d always be there.”

Bellows was like a brother to him, he said. “I’ve known him all my life. My mom and his mom were best friends. He lived at my house growing up, probably all the way from 12-years-old to 17. We’ve been close our whole life.”

He said the last time he saw Bellows was a few weeks ago when Bellows was outside the 119 Cool St. house, and he didn’t look good.

“He looked like he had scoliosis,” Douglass said. “He was just starting to get ready to do therapy for back surgery before this happened.”

Douglass and Bellows’ younger brother, Michael, are planning a funeral service for Bellows, but Douglass said he does not expect to have a date for another day or two.

“We want to do a GoFundMe to get a headstone,” Douglass said. “We want his kids to have a place to go to.”

Thomas Lowrie

Douglass said Bellows was married with three children but his wife was not at 119 Cool St. when the killing occurred. Douglass said he heard, though he couldn’t confirm, that Bellows and Lowrie had an argument the day of the killing because of noise and Bellows was trying to go to sleep. Douglass believes his friend was stabbed to death after going to sleep.

Lowrie also was involved in music. His website, coolstreet.org, bears his photo and says people know him in real life as Tommy Lowrie and online as musician Production Chimps. The website says he lives at a small house in Maine where he does recording, mixing and mastering music for affordable rates. The website says he retired from construction work.

According to a state criminal records check, Lowrie’s history with police includes a domestic assault charge in 2017, assault in 2015, and a charge of operating under the influence, all misdemeanors. He is listed as disqualified, by federal standards, from having a firearm, which indicates he may have a felony on his record in another state.

Bellows, according to a records check, has a criminal history that includes charges of robbery, felony burglary, elevated aggravated assault and criminal trespass, among other offenses.