There was a massive police presence in Medway Monday evening authorities tried to piece together how two people ended up dead following a police chase.

How Authorities Say It All Started

According to the Maine State Police, the incident began in the how of Houlton, when a 2011 Toyota Camry was stolen from the Hannaford parking lot there.

The man driving the stolen Camry, 20-year-old Luis Mendoza of Indian Township, headed south upon allegedly stealing the car. Reports of a wrong-way driver started to come into dispatchers around 9:21 PM. Callers reached out to the Bangor Regional Communications Center stating a car was driving south bound in the north bound lanes in the area of Island Falls.

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State and local law enforcement agents began to head in that direction. They did not yet know the car was stolen from Houlton, just that it was driving the wrong way.

What Happened Next

According to authorities, Mendoza kept travelling south to the Millinocket, where it was reported that he was driving southbound on the interstate at speeds upwards of 100 miles an hour. A member of the East Millinocket Police Department came across the vehicle at around mile marker 248 at 9:48 PM.

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When the officer, who at this point had turned around and caught up with the speeding Camry, attempted to stop the vehicle, the situation went from dangerous to deadly.

"The officer continued south and began entering the crossover at mile marker 244 to enter the correct flow of traffic.  The wrong-way vehicle continued south in the northbound lanes and entered a construction zone on a bridge in Medway just south of Exit 244.  Due to construction, southbound traffic is diverted onto the northbound bridge, with concrete barriers separating one lane of northbound traffic from one lane of southbound traffic. The wrong-way vehicle entered the construction zone traveling south in the northbound lane and struck another vehicle head on."

The end result of the crash

Mendoza was killed. The collision also killed the driver and sole occupant of the other car involved, 67-year-old Sandra Lacombe of Medway.

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Authorities had the area shut down for several hours trying to figure out what happened. Later it was determined that the car had been stolen in Houlton. The investigation is still ongoing.