The man found dead in a former 200-year-old church appeared to have hung himself from the choir balcony and might have started the blaze, authorities said.
When firefighters responded just after 4:30 a.m .to the church, which had been converted into a home on East Plymouth Road in Terryville on Friday morning, they found the body Jim Ross, 49, who apparently committed suicide, authorities told the Hartford Courant.
Neighbors told the newspaper that Ross and his wife were getting divorced, and Jim Ross had moved back into the house while his wife and the couple's son had moved out recently.
The home is listed for sale by Weichert real estate for $350,000. The listing says the house is circa 1791 and was once a Tory church.
Copyright The Associated Press
