LEBANON — A vehicle that was reported to be missing from the scene of a barn fire in Plainfield was located and recovered and a Lebanon man was arrested and charged in connection with the investigation on Tuesday, police said.

Thomas Hamel, 30, was charged with falsifying physical evidence, a felony, and was being held in preventive detention at Grafton County House of Corrections pending his arraignment in Grafton County Superior Court on Wednesday, Lebanon police said in a news release.

“When Lebanon officers spoke with the resident, they were able to confirm the vehicle from Plainfield was located at the property. The resident told officers that a few days ago a friend had asked to store their vehicle at his residence,” the news release said.

The vehicle, a 2001 silver Audi TT convertible, was one of three vehicles — including a Porsche Boxster and a Mercedes van — that were being stored in an historic barn on Route 120 in Plainfield which burned to the ground in an early Sunday morning fire. When firefighters sifted through the charred debris, they found the burned remains of the Porsche and Mercedes and thought those were the only vehicles in the barn.

Later police were informed there had been a third vehicle stored in the barn, which had been seen as recently as Saturday by a neighbor.

The connection, if any, between the fire and missing Audi is not clear and police said the investigation is continuing.

Lebanon and Plainfield police recovered the Audi from a residence at 209 Bank St. Extension in Lebanon, where Plainfield Police Chief Anthony Swett said it had been covered under a tarp.

Swett said police dispatch had received a call Tuesday with information about the location of the vehicle.

Hamel resides at the address where the vehicle was located, according to Lebanon Deputy Chief of Police Matthew Isham.

“There could be more charges. There’s more work that needs to be done before we can say that,” Isham said.

Plainfield’s Swett said it is too early to draw conclusions about whether the fire and Audi that went missing are related.

“We don’t know that yet until we interview all the parties involved,” said Swett, who added that investigators had returned the scene of the fire on Tuesday to seek further details. “Hopefully we’ll be able to get more information.”

Hamel has been charged over the years with numerous felonies and misdemeanors in Grafton County including simple assault, burglary, and violation of parole over the years, according to New Hampshire State Court records. In 2017, Hamel was involved in a physical altercation with his employer over an unpaid debt.

The two destroyed vehicles and the Audi are owned by Lawrence Fisk, of Methodist Hill Road in Plainfield, who was storing them for the winter in the barn owned by Judith Belyea while he resides in Florida.

A neighbor, awakened by an explosion sound, had alerted Belyea in the early Sunday morning hours that her barn, which sat only about a dozen feet from Belyea’s house, was on fire and then crossed the road and went into the house to escort Belyea outside to safety.

On Tuesday, Fisk, speaking from Florida, said he was “surprised but happy” that the Audi had been recovered.

“I just thought it would be gone forever,” he said, adding that the driver who towed the vehicle told him it “seemed to be fine.”

Although Fisk made clear he “is not the investigator” into the fire and disappearance of his vehicle, he said “it is kind of curious that these two incidents happened at the same time.”

Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.

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