The month of May is Maine Missing Persons Month. Dozens of missing persons cases dating all the way back to 1964 remain unsolved. And those are only the cases that are listed on the Maine State Police public database. The families I’ve spent time with over the last few years who have lost a loved one to unexplained or suspicious disappearances have taught me a lot about what this kind of loss is like. It’s nebulous. There is no end. It’s always searching, looking for faces in crowds, a feeling of helplessness that the person they love is still out there, somewhere.
In April of 2021, I was sitting up to the dining room table at Richard Moreau’s house for the first time to get to know his daughter, Kimberly Moreau, through his memories and stories.
Kimberly Moreau was 17-years old when she disappeared from her small hometown of Jay, Maine. 35 years have passed since that night in May 1986, when she stepped out the door of her home and into a waiting car to continue her night with friends. Friends who were the last people to see Kim alive.
I released Kim’s story in two parts on Dark Downeast last year. It was the 35th anniversary of her disappearance – a somber number to recognize for Kim’s family and the community. Everyone in town, and across the state seems to know Kim’s name, and you can’t drive through the western counties of Maine without seeing Kimberly Moreau’s face. Her father started hanging posters with Kim’s photo around town in 1986, and with the help of friends and family, new versions of those posters go up every single year.
Since that first meeting, I stayed in touch with Kim’s father, Richard, her sisters, Diane and Karen, and the friends who support the family in their efforts to bring this case to a conclusion. The response to the two-part series I released about Kim Moreau on Dark Downeast was massive. The new attention on her disappearance around the 35th anniversary brought in new tips to the Facebook group dedicated to finding her. One of those tips even proved viable enough for State Police detectives to follow up and take a closer look. Whatever they learned, or didn’t learn, during that search is not public information. The search for Kimberly Moreau continues.
During the summer of 2021, I returned to Kimberly Moreau’s hometown, this time with a camera crew. I was working on a project with a production company to highlight unsolved homicides and missing persons cases in New England. When I asked the Moreaus if they wanted to participate, it was a hard and fast ‘yes’. They’ll do whatever it takes to keep Kim’s story alive. So once again, they walked me through the last time they saw their daughter and sister alive on that May evening in 1986. Again, their tears fell remembering years that have passed and all the life that happened without Kim, the pain as real and present as the very first day without her.
If you have information that could help in the investigation, please contact Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit South at (207) 624-7076 or leave an anonymous tip.
I worked with local production company Fine Cut Media to adapt what we collected that day into a mini-documentary titled Missing Kim. It’s out right now at missingkim.com. You can also watch it in the player below.
In this mini-documentary, you’ll hear Kim Moreau’s story told by her father and sisters. We’ll walk you through the timeline of May 10, 1986 and show you each place in Jay and Livermore Falls associated with Kim’s case. Her sisters open up Kim’s purse, the one she left behind on the night she disappeared. Each precious item belonging to Kim has been preserved for decades, because in their words, they thought Kim would be right back.
It was a privilege to have the trust of the Moreau family to tell Kim’s story in this way, and I do not take lightly the emotional challenge it presents Richard, Diane, and Karen every time they open up about their daughter and sister, so to those three individuals and the ones behind the scenes, thank you for your trust. I hope this only helps your efforts to finally reunite with Kimberly.
I hope you’ll watch Missing Kim and share it far and wide. Help get Kim Moreau’s name and face circulating as yet another anniversary of her disappearance comes and goes, her family still waiting to bring their daughter and sister home.
Dark Downeast will return with a full length episode on Monday, May 16, 2022, so until then, thank you for supporting this show and allowing me to do what I do. I’m honored to use this platform for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones, and for those who are still searching for answers in cold missing persons and murder cases. I’m not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I’m Kylie Low and this is Dark Downeast.
Anything you can do to help reunite these families is important. Small efforts matter. When you see a post on social media of an active and ongoing search for a missing person, I hope you share it. I hope you’ll take a moment to look at the Maine Unsolved Missing Persons case list and search the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database for your home state. Thank you for not just being a listener of Dark Downeast, but also an active supporter of the families and the cases I cover.