CRESAPTOWN — A Hancock man convicted in the arson deaths of two young sisters — and recently charged with plotting to kill the girls’ mother — died Wednesday night at the North Branch Correctional Institution as a result of a possible homicide.

Clarence Meyers, 39, was found unresponsive at about 8:30 p.m., prompting alert of Cresaptown Ambulance to the prison “for a CPR code,” according to the Allegany County 911 center.

Investigators with Maryland State Police and the Internal Investigative Unit of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services are “treating his death as a homicide,” said department spokesman Mark Vernarelli.

Meyers was found unresponsive in a general population unit by a “correctional officer making rounds,” said Vernarelli.

Meyers was serving two consecutive life sentences as a result of the arson deaths of Nicole ReAnn Gross, 15, and Mary Ann Gross, 12, who died in the February 2009 fire. The girls, former residents of Cumberland, died after being trapped in their second-floor bedroom of the house that was also occupied by Meyers and the girls’ mother, Melissa Wolf.

Wolf escaped by jumping from a second-floor bedroom window and Meyers also escaped the blaze. He later told investigators he set the fire in hopes of receiving sympathy and donations from the community.

Investigators determined that Meyers set the fire by spraying lighter fluid into an electrical panel next to a natural gas furnace in the basement and then igniting a piece of paper with a cigarette lighter. The residence is located at 220 Old Route 40.

The fire was investigated by the Maryland State Fire Marshal’s Office, Maryland State Police, and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Meyers pleaded guilty to two counts of felony murder and was sentenced in Washington County Circuit Court to the two consecutive life sentences.

Early this month, Meyers and his 67-year-old mother, Grace Marie Fink of West Main Street in Hancock, were indicted by a Washington County grand jury on nine counts involving an alleged murder-for-hire plot. Meyers was served with the indictment Dec. 10 at NBCI by state police investigators and Fink was arrested at her residence the same day. She was later jailed without bond at the Washington County Detention Center, pending trial in Washington County.

The investigation of the alleged murder-for-hire plot began in July by the Maryland State Police Criminal Investigative Division with the assistance of the FBI and the Washington County Detention Center. The case reportedly involved unrecorded conversations that occurred in the Washington County Detention Center between Meyers and a confidential informant for the FBI.

An arraignment for Meyers on the charges stemming from the alleged plot to solicit the slaying of the mother of his victims was canceled Tuesday.

Contact Jeffrey Alderton at jlalderton@times-news.com.