CANTON — Maine State Police have temporarily suspended their search for the remains of a 17-year-old Jay girl who disappeared in 1986, saying their extensive examination of the Canton property owned by the last person to have seen her alive proved fruitless.

Detective Sgt. Mark Holmquist of the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit said Sunday night that a fourth day of searching for Kimberly Moreau on the 5-acre property  owned by Brian Enman did not uncover any human remains.

Holmquist said the search will likely resume at some later date, but it would not involve Enman’s land off Route 108. Holmquist said state police want to take a closer look at adjacent properties owned by two Canton landowners, who have given them permission to conduct a ground search.

Holmquist was not certain when that might happen, but he said it would not be on Monday. Police will need equipment and expertise from the University of Maine to continue their search, and those resources will not be available then.

“We all knew going into this that it would be a tough search,” Holmquist said. “But we haven’t forgotten and the case remains very active.”

Authorities were assisted Sunday by UMaine geology professors and ground-penetrating radar to search the 5-acre parcel. They also used a backhoe.

Ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs identified five locations as possible search sites on Enman’s property, which he purchased in 2000, and on adjacent parcels.

Police haven’t classified the case as a homicide, but have said they suspect foul play.

“It has really been a slow and methodical process, as it should be,” Holmquist said.

Ron Moreau and Karen Dalot, uncle and sister of Kimberly Moreau, listen to Maine State Police Detective Sgt. Mark Holmquist give an update on the search for Kimberly Moreau near Route 108 in Canton on Sunday.

Kimberly Moreau disappeared on May 10, 1986 – the day before her junior prom. She had argued with her boyfriend and canceled her plans to attend the Jay High School junior prom with him. Instead, the teenager went out with a female friend named Rhonda Breton. The girls met a pair of 25-year-old acquaintances, one of whom was Enman and the other Darren Joudrey, police said. Moreau was last seen getting into a white Pontiac Trans Am with at least one of the two men at 11 p.m.

Moreau never returned home and was declared legally dead in 1993.

State police have not said what discovery led them to begin searching Enman’s property. Police have never named him as a suspect. Breton has since died.
Enman told investigators that he dropped Moreau off a half-mile from her home at her request.

Holmquist described Enman as cooperative. The detective said he would not rule out Enman, who was not at home on Sunday, as a possible future suspect.

“We’re not ruling anyone in, and we’re not ruling anyone out,” Holmquist said Sunday.

A Maine law enforcement investigator walks at the scene of a search for clues into what happened Kimberly Moreau. Carl D. Walsh/Staff Photographer

The Kennebec Journal reached the 54-year-old Enman on Friday, and while he said he understands that state police have a job to do, he maintains he had nothing to do with Moreau’s disappearance.

Enman admits that he and Joudrey “rode around,” drank alcohol and did cocaine together on the night of her disappearance. But he insists that he dropped her off alone in downtown Jay. Enman said she told him she didn’t want to go home.

When asked if Enman’s acquisition of his land in 2000 had anything to do with the investigation, Holmquist said he was “not sure.”

Investigators conference near the state police major crime unit truck at the search scene for Kimberly Moreau near Route 108 in Canton on Sunday. A back hoe was among the equipment used to dig for evidence in case. Carl D. Walsh/Staff Photographer

Meanwhile, the members of Moreau’s family remain optimistic that the intensive probe will solve the mystery of her disappearance.

Richard Moreau, Kimberly’s father, has remained vigilant since his daughter’s disappearance. The 73-year-old Moreau has posted thousands of fliers throughout western Maine and even conducted his own investigation. He has also searched dense forests, swamps and peered into wells with a flashlight in the hope he might find his daughter.

Moreau has said repeatedly that he wants closure and to be able to give his daughter a proper burial.

He said this most recent effort by police represents the most resources that investigators have put into a search area in the 29 years since his daughter’s disappearance.

“I feel this is the right place and the right time, but we still haven’t found anything,” Moreau said. “This is all about getting Kim back home.”

Moreau held hands with his wife, Bea, during a news conference that Holmquist held Sunday. Kimberly’s biological mother, Patricia Moreau, died in 1988 of cancer, just two years after her daughter disappeared.

“I am very optimistic that this is going to be it,” Bea Moreau said. She said knowing that police could be close to solving the case after 29 years has been very emotional for her family.

Richard Moreau, father of Kimberly Moreau, and a Maine State Police investigator talk during the search in Canton on Sunday. Carl D. Walsh/Staff Photographer

Kimberly’s older sister, Karen Dalot, also attended the news conference. Dalot said police have conducted at least 10 searches for her sister over the decades, but this one seems to be the most promising.

“We have gone through so many searches and you have no idea the roller-coaster emotions the family has gone through,” Dalot said.

Though the search is slow, Dalot said she is happy that investigators are being careful.

“I think we are very close to finding Kim now,” said the 49-year-old Dalot.

As Sunday’s search effort drew to a close, Holmquist met prvately with Moreau and his wife for about a half-hour.

Moreau, who was visibly distraught following the meeting, said “there will be nothing going on here tomorrow. That’s all I can tell you.”