PALMYRA -- Quiet, clean-cut, polite, but a little odd.

That's how some Palmyra residents described 23-year-old Enoch Petrucelly, who was arrested Sunday and charged with murdering his brother, Michael Petrucelly, 24.

Police say the men lived together in Palmyra. The death was reported Sunday from a residence on the Penobscot Bay island of North Haven.

Michael Petrucelly died as a result of multiple stab wounds to the chest, according to the state medical examiner.

Many Palmyra residents said Monday they were shocked by news of the killing.

Both Petrucelly brothers were frequent customers of the Palmyra Variety store on Main Street, said owner Lois Bowden. They lived nearby.

Bowden said Enoch Petrucelly worked local lawn-care jobs and as a cleaner at the U.S. Post Office, which is a stone's throw away from the variety store, at the corner of Main Street and Warren Hill Road.

The Palmyra postmaster declined to confirm whether Enoch Petrucelly was an employee, or to say anything about the incident.

Town residents said Michael Petrucelly worked at a local welding shop.

"He seemed to be a really nice kid; he got cigarettes every day before work," Bowden said of Michael. But Enoch, she said, seemed "a little strange, a little odd.

"Mike was smiling, more talkative than Enoch was," Bowden said. "Enoch would just walk in and say, 'Hi.'"

Although Bowden saw both Petrucelly brothers come into the store to buy soda and other products, they always came in on separate occasions, and not together.

"I never seen them together. I didn't even know they were brothers" until hearing about the incident, she said.

The news has taken people in town by surprise, Bowden said, because it's so close to home. Palmyra has about 2,000 residents.

"It's a horrendous thing. Unbelievable. Two people from your own town," Bowden said. "I feel so bad for the parents; his mother might as well have lost two sons."

Attempts to locate the men's parents Monday were unsuccessful. Town Clerk Denise Chamness said she recalls seeing the two brothers in her office and they "were really nice people." Enoch, Chamness said, seemed "quiet and shy," though he "always smiled."

"It affects us all hard," she said Monday. "I got a lot of calls first thing this morning from people. You really feel for the parents."

Both Petrucelly brothers were "clean-cut boys," Bowden said.

Calls to the First Baptist Church in Hartland, where the brothers were said to be affiliated, were not immediately returned.

Police declined to say Monday why the Petrucelly brothers were on North Haven, nor would they discuss the circumstances that led to Michael Petrucelly's death. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Monday classified the death as a homicide and said Michael Petrucelly died from multiple stab wounds to the chest.

Enoch Petrucelly is scheduled for an initial appearance at 10:30 a.m. today in Knox County Superior Court. He is not required to enter a plea.

The murder charge will then go before a Knox County grand jury, which must decide whether to return an indictment. If convicted of murder, Enoch Petrucelly faces 25 years to life in prison. He is being held in the Knox County Jail in Rockland. Maine State Police investigators said they were called to a home at 353 Crabtree Point Road Sunday at 5:40 a.m. for a report of an unresponsive man. The brothers were visiting an acquaintance's home on the island, police said. State Police are treating the death as a "domestic violence homicide" and continued to investigate the case Monday by examining the North Haven home and interviewing people. The island of North Haven can only be reached by boat.

Scott Monroe -- 487-3288

smonroe@centralmaine.com