By Eric Blaisdell
TIMES-ARGUS
BARRE, Vt. — After more than two years since he went missing, the investigation into the disappearance of Ralph “Rizz” Jean-Marie is ongoing, and the new Barre City police chief says he wants to “reinvigorate” the inquiry.
Jean-Marie, 38, was reportedly last seen at The Hollow Inn in April 2020.
The disappearance is considered suspicious because he left behind much of his personal belongings. Family members have said they believe Jean-Marie is dead because he has not reached out to them, which is not like him. Police have said those who know what happened to him aren’t coming forward. He also wasn’t reported missing until more than 60 hours after he was last seen.
This case received more public scrutiny than most missing persons cases because supporters of Jean-Marie, a Black man living at a motel on a state voucher, have said they believe more hasn’t been done to find him because of the color of his skin and his lower economic status. An article in Seven Days last year revealed investigators had not gone door-to-door canvassing the area around the motel looking for information about Jean-Marie nor had they checked surveillance footage from a nearby storage facility that sits on the same road as the motel. Police have denied race having any impact on the investigation.
The last public update from law enforcement about the investigation came last July when police released a video showing them searching local quarries using an underwater drone from a Minnesota company.
Then Tim Bombardier, the police chief in Barre City, retired in October. Bombardier had been acting as the public face of the investigation from law enforcement and held a news conference at The Hollow Inn on the one-year anniversary of Jean-Marie’s disappearance in an attempt to increase awareness of the case and a hope that someone who knows what happened to Jean-Marie will come forward.
Braedon “Brad” Vail took over as police chief on March 7. Vail had been serving as acting police chief in Hartford before taking the job in Barre.
Vail said in a Thursday interview police have a “rather large” case file on the Jean-Marie investigation that he is going to start digging into.
“I’m trying to reinvigorate the case,” he said. “As I peruse through the files, I’m going to be asking a lot of questions, and I’m going to have the detectives following up on anything that I can find, to include possibly re-interviewing witnesses, re-interviewing the folks that have given tips before. Because there are times where I’ve found that there could be something that seems meaningless to somebody that just pops in someone’s mind and says, ‘Oh yeah, by the way I forgot to mention when we were talking there was, you know, whatever.’ That’s my hope anyway.”
Vail said since he’s been chief here, there have been two new leads in the case. He couldn’t give much detail because the investigation is ongoing, but he said the leads were an anonymous tip and a piece of evidence.
The chief said cases like this are hard to solve without much physical evidence to help police find Jean-Marie or his remains.
“I do want folks to know that I’m committed to doing everything that I can in reinvigorating this thing moving forward,” Vail said.
Washington County State’s Attorney Rory Thibault said the public attention the case has received since last year has dialed down, as has the pace of anonymous tips and reports from residents to police about where Jean-Marie could be found. Thibault said residents have located some items of Jean-Marie’s and turned them over to law enforcement and none of it has been relevant to the investigation thus far.
“But it demonstrates that there are people in the community who remain aware of his disappearance that are trying to help in any way they can. I’m greatly appreciative that when these items were found that people brought them forward … so detectives can determine whether they are relevant or not,” he said.
The prosecutor said police still receive sporadic tips about where Jean-Marie is, but none of them have yielded any results. Thibault said at some point someone who has information about what happened to Jean-Marie will come forward.
Anyone with information about Jean-Marie’s disappearance, or his whereabouts, is asked to call Barre City police at 802-476-6613. A $5,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the location of Jean-Marie and those responsible for his disappearance. Anonymous tips can also be made by texting the keyword VTIPS to 274637 (CRIMES) or at new.tipsubmit.com/en/create-report/anonymous/state.vt.us to submit an anonymous tip online.
eric.blaisdell @timesargus.com
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