CANTON — A weekend search by paranormal investigators of Androscoggin River islands from Mexico to Canton for the remains of a Jay teen missing since 1986 failed to turn up any evidence.

However, news media coverage of the search for Kimberly Ann Moreau by members of the Bucksport Chapter of the Bangor Ghost Hunters Association generated several anonymous tips and leads.

“We went three-quarters of the way down the river, but we’re not leaving empty-handed,” lead ghost investigator Harold Murray said Tuesday.

“We are following some leads and clues that are going to take us up to Waterville this week, and we want to try and get some cooperation from the townspeople, because we will be in the area Wednesday night through Saturday morning, maybe Sunday afternoon,” Murray said.

On Friday, four members of the Ghost Hunters and a volunteer from Farmington launched canoes downriver from the Mexico boat launch at the Swift River confluence with the Androscoggin to search the many islands from there to Livermore Falls.

They were looking for evidence or human bones from Moreau, who was last seen leaving her Jewell Street home on the night of May 9, 1986, with an unknown person who was driving a late-model white Trans-Am.

Moreau was wearing a white blouse, blue jeans, white high-top sneakers, and a man’s class ring engraved “Mike 1987” and “Mike Staples.”

Though declared legally dead in 1993, Kim’s body was never found, and no one has been arrested on charges related to her disappearance.

Murray said the team would search woods in the Waterville-Norridgewock area this week “for clues and possibly for remains,” and then return to Dixfield, before finishing its search of the Androscoggin next month with a new team.

The group ended its search in the Meadow View area at the Canton boat launch off Dorey Road.

“Like I said, this could be a wild-goose chase, but we need to do the follow-up on the tips and stuff,” Murray said. “And everyone that has tipped us, they did not give a name or anything else.

“We got a lot of leads, a lot of tips, with most of them pointing us to Waterville for some questioning,” he said. “So, we’ll head to Waterville to talk to some people, and then we have to go down to Dixfield and look in a couple of caves down there. I don’t know where the caves are, but someone sent us GPS coordinates.”

During the Androscoggin islands’ search, Murray said the team found animal bones, pottery, broken beer bottles, an assortment of shoes in various stages of decomposition, and small chains for a pocket watch, a vest and a necklace.

“Nothing that will tie into Kim, really,” he said.

They plan to finish searching the river’s islands from where they left off in Canton to Livermore Falls, and a couple of islands in Dixfield that fit a description garnered by comparing notes from psychics who have worked Kim’s case for her father, Dick Moreau of Jay.

“We are returning if these other leads don’t pan out,” Murray said.

His group of paranormal investigators aren’t the only ones still looking for Kim.

Maine State Police Detective David Pelletier said Tuesday that he was assigned the missing-person case last year and has been working it every chance he gets.

“It’s still an active missing-person case, but there’s been nothing big coming in,” Pelletier said. “So, I’m looking for a good lead or persons of interest. I know the family needs closure.”

Former state police Detective Mark Lopez worked the case for many years, before transferring to the commercial trucking enforcement division. Moreau’s case was assigned to Pelletier.

He’s been busy going through case notes, driving around the area to familiarize himself with case details and people, and talking with local police chiefs, he said.

“I am actively working it, and would like anyone with information to please come forward with it, whether it’s anonymously given or else,” Pelletier said.

To contact or leave a message for Pelletier, call the Maine State Police barracks in Gray at 657-3030. To contact Harold Murray of the Ghost Hunters, call 659-4053 or e-mail [email protected].

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