Chatham man faces charges related to bomb-making, fentanyl after roommates found dead
ORLEANS − A 43-year-old Chatham man charged with possessing explosive materials and trafficking fentanyl after his roommates were found dead was ordered held without bail after a judge on Wednesday found he was too dangerous to be released.
Andreas Miller has pleaded not guilty to charges of possession of an incendiary device and trafficking in fentanyl.
Chatham police received a phone call around 10:30 a.m. on Monday from a man whose wife had not shown up for work that day, according to a police affidavit. The man found his wife's black Honda in the driveway of her boyfriend's house at 1624 Main St. in Chatham but got no response when he knocked on the door or called her cell phone.
The Chatham Police and Fire Departments went into the house and found both the wife and boyfriend dead in a first-floor bedroom.
The man, 56, was holding a pistol and appeared to have a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, while the woman, 30, had apparently fatally overdosed. Prescription medication bottles and Narcan were also found in the bedroom.
Police then found the man's roommate, Miller, sleeping in an upstairs bedroom.
"He claimed to not know what was going on so they removed him from the residence" for questioning, said Assistant District Attorney Robert Hoffman during a dangerousness hearing at Orleans District Court.
Armed with search warrants, investigators returned to the house and found incendiary materials that are precursors to explosives and bomb-making material, said Hoffman. That included several pounds of white powder that tested consistent with potassium nitrate, a pressure cooker and powdered sugar.
About 75 grams of pressed fentanyl pills and white powder of suspected fentanyl were also found in Miller's bedroom along with $50,000 cash. His bedroom is locked with a thumb print activated door handle and a camera is mounted outside his door in the second-floor hallway, according to Hoffman.
Before Judge Robert Welsh III made his decision, defense attorney Matthew Bober asked the motion to hold Miller without bail be denied and said Miller has been on the Cape since 1995 and has lived in Chatham for the past two years.
"There's nothing to suggest my client was involved in any foul play ... the police report says nothing whatsoever to suggest he was involved in that," said Bober.
Bober also said the bomb-making materials were found downstairs while Miller lived upstairs and that the materials are legal to possess in Massachusetts.
Miller's next court date is on May 6.
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Zane Razzaq writes about housing and real estate. Reach her at zrazzaq@capecodonline.com. Follow her on X @zanerazz.
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Chatham man charged with possession of bomb-making materials
