SKOWHEGAN — Police suspected a Garland woman accused of killing of her 78-year-old sister was the last person to see her sister alive and linked her to the shooting through DNA and other evidence.

Those are among the new details about the investigation into the death of Velma Withee in Hartland revealed in a detective’s affidavit, filed in court supporting the arrest of Bonnie Coombs.

The affidavit, however, does not point to a clear motive for the April killing.

Coombs, 69, made an initial court appearance Friday at the Somerset County Superior Court. The Maine State Police arrested Coombs on Wednesday, according to a statement the agency issued.

Coombs is charged with the intentional or knowing murder of Withee, who was 78. Superior Court Chief Justice Robert E. Mullen informed her of the charge during the appearance, which was largely procedural.

Coombs, who was brought to the courthouse from the Somerset County Jail in Madison for the brief proceeding, is being held without bail.

Assistant Attorney General Kate Bozeman requested a bail hearing, which, based on the discussion in court, is expected to be scheduled in the coming weeks. Defense attorney James Howaniec, appointed to represent Coombs, said he would be ready to proceed with the bail hearing “sooner rather than later.”

“We think there are some legitimate bail issues,” said Howaniec, whose law office is in Lewiston.

Coombs did not speak in court, although she did appear to mouth the words “I love you” to two men seated in the courtroom gallery several times while entering the courtroom and waiting for the proceeding to begin.

Coombs has not yet entered a plea. Prosecutors must first seek an indictment from a grand jury before she is asked to enter one.

According to an affidavit from Detective Einar Mattson of the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit – Central, Withee’s son and his wife found her dead on April 12. The Somerset County Sheriff’s Office responded and requested major crimes detectives to assist as the death appeared suspicious.

The two found Withee lying on her back between a pickup truck and camper trailer outside her home at 456 Canaan Road in Hartland, Mattson wrote in the affidavit. Several items were placed around the body, which was partially covered by a tarp, the affidavit says.

Blood was visible on Withee’s clothing and body, the affidavit says.

Two days later, the Office of Chief Medical Examiner ruled Withee’s death a homicide and found the cause to be multiple gunshot wounds to her head, the affidavit says.

Over the next several weeks, detectives interviewed several people, including customers on Withee’s route for her trash collection business, according to the affidavit. Coombs was also interviewed multiple times.

Police determined Coombs was the last person to see Withee alive, as the two were seen together on the trash route April 9.

Police also believe that was the day Coombs killed Withee. Withee was recorded on one of her trash collection customer’s home video cameras wearing similar clothes to those found on her body; Withee also did not annotate her calendar, as she commonly did, or make any phone calls between then and April 12, when her body was found, the affidavit says.

Blood found in Coombs’ vehicle, seized with a search warrant, matched Withee’s DNA profile, the affidavits said. Investigators also found a small caliber bullet of the same size and type as one recovered during an autopsy with blood on it that also matched Withee’s DNA profile.

“Blood, DNA and physical evidence recovered at (Coombs’) home and from inside her vehicle indicate that (Withee) was shot inside (Coombs’) vehicle and that (Withee) was the only other person present when this shooting occurred,” Mattson wrote in the affidavit.

Mattson further wrote that Coombs had “intimate knowledge of the circumstances” of Withee’s death and provided “differing and contradictory accounts of her final interactions of her sister’s death.”

During her initial interview, Coombs told detectives that a man had threatened to shoot Withee and her cat. Mattson wrote in the affidavit investigators found that “suspiciously specific to the circumstances” of Withee’s death, as it matched the manner of death, multiple gunshots, and other evidence, like a cat that was also found shot to death.

Police had not publicly released information at that point in the investigation that could account for her knowing at that point that Withee was shot to death, the affidavit says.

Coombs also told one of the trash collection route customers about Withee’s body lying in the snow for days, before investigators determined she was killed three days before her body was found and state police released any information to the public.

Coombs was photographed on a trail camera that Withee’s son and daughter-in-law set up on her property following her death, the affidavit says.

“It is known to your affiant that suspects will commonly return to the scene of a crime after the police have completed their initial investigation in an attempt to learn what evidence may have been collected or missed and what the investigation may have uncovered,” Mattson wrote.

And she left several voicemails on Withee’s phone in the days after police believe she died, the affidavit says, which investigators also found suspicious.

“…suspects will leave messages for their victims in an attempt to throw off investigators and feign ignorance of the victim’s death,” Mattson wrote.