CANTON — Cadaver dogs gave several indications that human remains were on land adjacent to property owned by one of the last people to see a Maine teenager alive nearly 30 years ago, and investigators plan to return there “in the near future” to resume the search, a state police detective said Monday.
State Police will meet this week with geologists before determining the next step after four days of searches on and around Canton property owned by Brian Enman, said Det. Sgt. Mark Holmquist of the Major Crimes Unit.
“We remain cautiously optimistic,” he said. “This case in particular is challenging because it’s 29 years old. Essentially it’s trying to find a needle in a haystack. It’s a big challenge.”
Kimberly Moreau of Jay was 17 when she disappeared May 10, 1986, after going out with a group that included Enman, police say. Enman has denied any involvement in her disappearance, and he has never been charged with a crime in the disappearance.
Moreau’s father, Richard Moreau, said Monday he’s confident state police are getting closer to solving the mystery of his daughter’s disappearance.
“The best way to describe this is putting a 10,000-piece puzzle together. We’ve got to have the final piece to tell us where the body is,” the 73-year-old said.
The search of the property appeared to be a big break.
State police obtained a search warrant, and Moreau said he was told that there was new evidence in the disappearance.
Police spent four days searching Enman’s land and nearby woods with ground-penetrating radar, cadaver dogs and even a backhoe. Medical examiners and University of Maine geology professors were part of the effort.
The land was owned by someone else in 1986, but Enman purchased it in 2000. He filed a building permit in 2004, and there’s a home on the property. Holmquist declined to say what made investigators zero in on the land.
Richard Moreau said he only wants closure.
He said his daughter was with Enman and another man and a friend, Rhonda Breton, before she went missing. Breton has since died.
Enman told the Kennebec Journal that he and the other man drank alcohol and did cocaine together that night. He said he dropped Kim Moreau off near her home, and that’s the last he saw of her, he told the newspaper.
Over the years, Moreau has posted thousands of flyers alerting the public that his daughter remains missing. One of them is posted on a utility pole across the street from Enman’s driveway.
He said law enforcement investigators will do what they have to do to find his daughter and to make sure justice is served. But he said he doesn’t hold grudges. “I just want my daughter and I want to put her to rest,” he said.
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