JAY — Every day, Richard Moreau and his family live with the pain of losing his 17-year-old daughter, Kimberly Moreau, who disappeared in 1986 and has never been found.

“My only interest is bringing Kim home,” he said in a recent interview. “I’ll do anything I can. I want to see her put to rest at the cemetery.”

Ever since that fateful Saturday night, May 10, 1986, the Moreaus have worked tirelessly looking for answers to what happened to Kim. It was a night that remains frozen in time, and Richard Moreau and his daughter, Karen Dalot, vividly recalled their memories of Kim in an emotional interview at Dalot’s home.

Kim did cheerleading and gymnastics and attended Jay High School; she was a high school junior at the time she disappeared. Dalot said Kim liked going to the beach and outdoor activities.

“Kim wanted to be a model,” she said. She was entered in the Miss Maine beauty pageant at the time of her disappearance.

On Saturday, May 10, Moreau was working with his wife at the VFW in Jay. He was chairman of the 120 Club. The VFW was on Jewell Street in Jay not far from the family’s home.

“We had a big supper and dance,” he remembered. “We came home at 1:30, 20 minutes of 2. We looked in (to Kim’s bedroom). No Kim.”

They began to be concerned, because Kim “was never one to be out like that at that time,” Moreau said. “We went over to the (Jay) Police Station, and they said, ‘You can’t report her missing until 48 hours have gone.'”

That night, according to various reports, Kim went into town with her friend, Rhonda Breton, who was a senior at Jay High School. There, they encountered two 25-year-old acquaintances in a white Pontiac Trans Am, Brian Enman and Darren Joudry. Around 11 p.m. after Darren left to go to work, the car pulled up in front of Kim’s home on Jewell Street. Kim ran inside and told Karen that she was going out for a ride and would be back in an hour.

There were rumors that she was at a big party where they was a lot of drinking.

“We’ve heard stories every which way,” Moreau said. “I can’t find anybody that absolutely says she was there. The one that could have told us, and she’s dead, is her girlfriend, Rhonda Breton.”

Moreau does believe that Kim died accidentally, that the people she was with didn’t set out to kill her. Moreau also believes his daughter died not long after leaving home for the final time.

“I would stake my life that within four hours of the time she left home, she was dead,” he said.

The Moreaus asked their other children, Karen and Diane, if they knew anything about Kim’s whereabouts. When she had been missing for 48 hours, they reported it to police.

Although the paperwork went to Farmington to be processed, somehow, it got lost, Moreau said, and wasn’t listed in the database until August 1986. At that particular time, the Jay Police Department was extremely unhelpful, according to Dalot.

“The Jay police stopped articles from being in the newspaper. They stopped us from hanging up posters,” she said.

Both Dalot and Moreau were quick to point out that in recent years, Jay police have been of great assistance and have stood by the family even in their darkest moments.

Recently, Maine Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese said, according to www.unitedforayla.com, that Maine State Police are attempting to secure assistance from the FBI in Kim’s disappearance and death. Although no trace of her has ever been found, Kim was declared dead in 1993.

“We’ve been offered help by the FBI. It has been flatly denied,” Dalot said.

Now, the family is asking people to sign a petition for a cold case squad, which they believe is needed in Maine not just for Kim’s case but for all the other missing persons reports that go unsolved. The petition can be found online at www.change.org/p/permanently-fund-a-cold-case-squad-in-maine.

“I understand that a person can only do so many things,” Dalot said. “If it’s more help, more availability, that can only help.”

“Whether it be Kim or anyone else,” Moreau chimed in. “Some of the things we instituted are still being used today.”

Now, families in Maine with missing children no longer have to wait 48 hours; they can file a report immediately.

“The absolute most critical time is in those first 48 hours,” Moreau said. “Back in ’86, if they applied this in any way, Kim never would have been missing this long.

“This isn’t only about Kim,” he said. “This cold case squad is for every single family there is, for every family that’s hurting.”

Jay police Chief Richard Caton agreed that a cold case squad would be beneficial in Maine.

“I do feel it’s necessary, although it would have to go through the U.S. Attorney or the Attorney General’s Office,” he said.

The age of the case has created challenges as far as gathering evidence, he said. Yet, the Jay police have offered whatever help they can, Caton confirmed.

“We’ve been here for them with any information we have,” he said. “It’s been passed on to the state police. We met with the Moreaus and tried to address any concerns they had.”

State police have jurisdiction, although the Jay Police and other agencies have been working in conjunction with them.

“Larry White over the years sincerely wanted to find Kim,” said Dalot, referring to the late Jay police chief. She said he helped get Kim’s information on the town website.

“The Moreau family is appreciative of everything he did,” she said. “I think Larry found Kim up in heaven and gave her a hug.”

“He said the most important thing is we get Kim home,” Moreau said.

State police have identified two prime suspects. “One of these days, they’ll have the evidence they need,” Moreau said.

Since Kim went missing, Moreau has worked tirelessly in his quest to find out what happened. From searching numerous acres of woods, to putting up posters on telephone poles with her information, he has made it a mission to discover what occurred. He said that strangers have offered their support in person and online, even offering money to continue putting up and maintaining the posters.

“People say, ‘How do you keep it going?'” Moreau said. “I ask them, if it’s your daughter, your brother or sister, when do you stop looking?”

“No matter what, you can solve it, but I want her body, I want her to have a final resting place,” Dalot said.

Kim has a headstone beside her mother, Patricia, who died due to breast cancer in 1988.

“My mother never gave up,” Dalot said.

She and her father have not either. Both say they are not only advocating for Kim, but for all the families in Maine who have had a loved one gone missing.

“Ask questions and advocate. That’s why the cold case squad is so important,” Dalot said. “Every family deserves closure.”

“Kudos to the many men and women who’ve helped,” she added. “She’s not home yet. Don’t stop looking.”

“We’re living with the pain of this thing every day,” Moreau said. “We’ve got people out there who could end it. I’d like the people with this information to live in our shoes for not even a full day, but half a day.

“There’s definitely some people who know where she is now,” he said. “Just pick up a phone and call us. Use a pay phone. Give me specific directions to get to her body.”

Anyone with any information that might shed light on the events of May 10 and 11, 1986, that resulted in Kimberly’s disappearance is asked to call Maine State Police.