Beloved $1m-a-year private school principal vanished from his home and was found overdosing at Maine lake house after IRS opened money-laundering probe: report

Detailed summary

Charles Cahn III, who led Suffield Academy in Connecticut for 23 years, was found overdosing in a cabin in Maine days after the IRS opened an investigation into alleged money laundering.

By NIC WHITE, US SENIOR INVESTIGATIONS REPORTER and WILL POTTER, US SENIOR NEWS REPORTER

Published: 21:21 GMT, 12 November 2026 | Updated: 21:44 GMT, 12 November 2026

A private school principal vanished from his home and was found overdosing on drugs at his lake house until he was saved by police.

Charles Cahn III, 56, who led the prestigious Suffield Academy in Connecticut for 23 years, was put on leave on October 22 amid a tax fraud investigation by the IRS.

His ouster from the $1 million-a-year job came hours after federal agents descended on the Suffield Academy campus on October 21.

He was nowhere to be found and did not make contact with family or friends for two days.

Cahn was only discovered when his wife used locator software to realize he was at their second home on a Maine lake.

A Cumberland County Sheriff’s deputy was sent to the property and found Cahn suffering from a drug overdose, according to the incident report.

Cahn was lying in bed with 'agonal and labored' breathing, with a prescription pill bottle nearby, the deputy wrote. It is unclear what drugs he is said to have taken.

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