Donald Messier, 34, of Waterbury, disappeared 16 years ago on October 15, 2006, after leaving a party.
The truck of a man missing since 2006 has been found at the bottom of a river in Duxbury, Vermont, after a team of divers Wednesday discovered it in the Winooski River, WCAX reported.
Donald Messier, 34, of Waterbury, disappeared 16 years ago on October 15, 2006, after leaving a party in Waitsfield. Now thanks to divers with the Oregon-based group Adventures with Purpose, they believe they may have found a piece of evidence that might help piece together what happened to him, WCAX reported.
After Messier didn’t show up for work at the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters plant days after the party, his family, who said he was depressed and potentially suicidal, reported him missing, according to police, the Miami Herald reported.
Yet despite authorities best efforts, they were never able to find Messier, leaving the case to remain cold.
Police said over the years they received tips but nothing panned out, the Miami Herald reported.
Last year, in what would have been Messier’s 50th birthday and the 15th anniversary of his disappearance, renewed interest in his case surfaced, the Miami Herald reported.
In a press release, Vermont State Police said that “an outside group, Adventures With Purpose, working independently” from authorities and “notified investigators on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, that their divers had located a truck in the Winooski River in Waterbury that they believe had belonged to Messier.”
Detectives have now closed off the scene as it is “active, and the investigation into this new evidence is in its earliest stages,” cops said.
Since the discovery, Capt. Matt Daley and the Vermont State Police have taken over the investigation, according to WCAX.
“We have the vehicle that we’re looking for,” Daley told WCAX. “It’s a piece of evidence, right? Our detectives will try to piece it together.”
It remains unclear if Messier’s remains have been found.
“If there are remains in there, great. If not, we will keep on searching. It’s just another place for us to investigate and see if we can’t bring some closure to the family,” Daley told WCAX.
Anyone with information that may assist investigators in this case is asked to call the state police barracks in Berlin at 802-229-9191 or leave an anonymous tip online at https://vsp.vermont.gov/tipsubmit.
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