A chef from Maine who was found dead, wrapped up in a car outside a Massachusetts hospital last month had been strangled, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Christopher Caron, 42, of Scituate, pleaded not guilty to murder in the death of 27-year-old Declan Perry of Portland, Maine at his arraignment in Hingham District Court. Caron was ordered held without bail.

Perry's body was found Saturday afternoon, August 23, in the back seat of a Honda Civic that was parked outside South Shore Hospital's emergency room in Weymouth. According to the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office, the body was "wrapped in multiple blankets secured with duct tape." It was later identified as Perry.

In court Tuesday, prosecutor Jennifer Sprague said Perry came to Caron's condo in Scituate the day before and the two went to Boston to buy fentanyl and cocaine. Later that night, Caron said Perry overdosed, so he called a woman and asked her to bring Narcan to his home. She arrived just after 3 a.m. but wasn't able to revive him. The woman later told police Perry was still breathing and his heart was beating fast. The woman said she told Caron to call for help but he allegedly refused, saying his mother and grandmother would kick him out of the home if they found out what had happened.

The woman told police she didn't see any drugs in the room and went to sleep. Caron woke her up at 7 a.m. and told her Perry was dead. The woman said she told Caron again to call for help, but he didn't. Instead, she said he went online and searched for what happens "when you die."

"Hockey goalie mannequin"

The prosecutor said Caron then tried moving Perry's body using a door as a stretcher, but failed, so he wrapped Perry up in blankets and moved the body outside to Perry's car. Neighbors saw Caron struggling with the pile of blankets and when they asked him what he was moving, he allegedly told them it was a "hockey goalie mannequin." Two men who helped Caron move the blankets into the car said he joked, "It looks like dead body, huh?"

"At one point, one them sees what he believes to be a human forearm. Based on that observation, after the body is in the car that neighbor contacts the other neighbor that was assisting, telling him what he saw. That second neighbor went out and took a photograph of the back of the car and later showed police that photograph," Sprague said. She said Perry's feet were wrapped in blankets, sticking out of the window.

Investigators said Caron drove the car to the hospital, went inside, told the staff there was a body in the car outside and left before police arrived.

Officers later got a search warrant for Caron's condo and seized several items, including the detached door with "red brown stains" on it and a black belt, according to the prosecutor. An arrest warrant was issued for Caron Friday evening, but police said he turned himself in to Scituate police Saturday afternoon. He spent the weekend in the Plymouth House of Correction.

"This was a homicide"

Sprague said an autopsy later showed Perry had been strangled and that he didn't die from a drug overdose. Caron was ordered held without bail. He's due back in court September 29.

"You heard the injuries that we have from the preliminary medical examiner's report at this time. Those are certainly very discerning. Which led to us, among other things, that this was a homicide and not just a drug overdose," Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz told reporters outside court after the arraignment.

"We are confident that as the facts unfold in this case, this will be an example of the Massachusetts State Police jumping to conclusions and charging someone with murder when the evidence makes clear that what took place, while a tragedy, was not a crime," Caron's attorney, G. Makis Antzoulatos, said in a statement.

Perry's father, Brendan Perry, told WBZ-TV last month that Declan was a chef in Portland, Maine. He described his son as "a family guy, a good kid with a ton of friends."