PLEASANT MOUNT (AP) - Officers checking on the welfare of a resident stumbled upon a possible homicide, an apparent suicide and a large-scale marijuana growing operation, authorities said.

State police in Lackawanna County said officers went Monday morning to a home in Mount Pleasant Township in the northeastern corner of the state, to find property owner Joseph Mastropole after a woman in New York called with concerns about his welfare.Police spokesman Mark Keyes said a man at the door gave them a false name, said he was a roommate and hadn't seenMastropole, 54. On a second visit, police saw a barn with signs of a lot of ventilation and smelled a strong odor of marijuana, so they came back shortly before 3:30 p.m. Monday with a warrant. Knocking on the door of the home, they heard a gunshot and called for a special tactical unit, which later entered and found the body of 57-year-old Gaston Gomez, dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.In the barn, police found more than 100 marijuana plants and a smoldering burn barrel containing suspected remains which a forensic specialist said appeared to be human.