The home at 16 Bartlett St. in South Gardiner where Alfred MacMaster was found killed is shown cordoned off with police tape on July 27. MacMaster’s son, Gregory Fisher, has been indicted in connection with the killing. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel file

AUGUSTA — A Gardiner man has been indicted on a charge of murder in connection with the death of his father.

Gregory Fisher, 52, who lived off and on with his parents at their home at 16 Bartlett St. in South Gardiner, was arrested July 26. He was charged with killing his father, Alfred MacMaster, 75.

Police say the killing took place as early as July 21, nearly a week before MacMaster’s body was found at the home.

Fisher was indicted Aug. 21 by a Kennebec County grand jury and charged with intentional or knowing murder. He was also indicted on a charge of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

Police responding to the South Gardiner home for a well-being check on July 26 found the body of MacMaster and shortly thereafter took his son into custody as a suspect, court records show.

A probable cause affidavit filed by police alleges Fisher left his father’s body in the yard of his parents’ home on Bartlett Street, where he had lived over the past week with his girlfriend.

Gardiner police visited the home after they received a call asking for a welfare check on MacMaster. When the police arrived they were met by Fisher, who said his father had died five days earlier in a car accident.

Inside the residence, court records say, police found blood stains on the carpet. In the backyard, they found a body wrapped in a bedding comforter that was concealed by carpet and cardboard. The Office of Chief Medical Examiner concluded that MacMaster had died five to seven days earlier from blunt force trauma to the head.

The affidavit states that several people in the neighborhood reported to police that they had not seen MacMaster or his wife, Dorothy MacMaster, in several days, and that Fisher and his girlfriend were living in the home as well.

Fisher’s girlfriend told police that he failed to pick her up at a scheduled time on either July 21 or 22. On July 23, she said, Fisher asked her if she could help take care of his mother because “his dad passed away.” The girlfriend then took Dorothy MacMaster to look for cemetery plots for Alfred.

The girlfriend told police that she noticed a strange smell and told Fisher to take out the trash.

According to court documents, when Fisher was arrested the night of July 26, he told Gardiner police that he had been using crack cocaine through the week and forged a $21,000 check using his father’s name and bank account. Several people interviewed by police mentioned seeing Fisher smoke out of a long pipe in front of the home.

Fisher was convicted of domestic violence assault in Franklin County in 2003 and twice in Kennebec County, in 2009 and 2011. His conviction for domestic violence made it illegal for him to possess a firearm, resulting in the indictment charging possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.