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When 38-year-old Ralph "Riz" Jean Marie was reported missing from a motel where he was living in Barrie, Vermont, the story was that he up and left after an argument, leaving behind his personal belongings and everything you'd think someone might take with them if they were going to start a new life for themselves somewhere, or even just taking off to get some space for a few days.
But from day one of the investigation, law enforcement had reason to believe the initial narrative of Ralph's disappearance wasn't anchored in the whole truth. Ralph didn't just walk off, never to be seen again. Someone, or multiple someones, had a hand in his disappearance. But getting answers as to what really happened proved a challenge for local authorities.
Family members and activists alike have been critical of law enforcement's response to Ralph's disappearance, and they continue to speak out today about the lack of progress in the three-year-long investigation. This case has layers, from a secret inquest to demonstrations and protests from local activists to the prosecution of a journalist. It all stems from the biggest and most important question at the center of the case. Where is Ralph Jean Marie?
I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East. On the night of April 15th, 2020, around 9 p.m., Barrie City Police in Barrie, Vermont, received a report of a missing person.
According to reporting by Alan J. Keyes for The Valley News, friends of 38-year-old Ralph Jean Marie, who also went by the name Riz, reported him missing that Wednesday, though no one had actually seen Riz since the early morning hours of Monday, April 13th. Around 1 a.m. on April 13th, 2020, Ralph Jean Marie allegedly walked out of the room where he'd been living at the Hollow Inn on South Main Street in Barrie, Vermont.
He'd supposedly gotten into some sort of dispute with his "significant other" and just left. Ralph took nothing with him when he walked away. All of his essential medications, his glasses, his wallet, and his ID were left behind in the room. He was wearing only pajama pants, a jacket, a hat with the word "King" on it, and sneakers.
According to a redacted investigative timeline for case 20BA003033 shared by the Berry City Police Department on their official Facebook page, law enforcement took action and began searching for Ralph Jean Marie the same day he was reported missing.
Their initial search entailed the immediate area near the motel and area hospitals. The timeline notes that on April 17, 2020, the Vermont Intelligence Center released a missing person flyer for Ralph Jean Marie. It would have been the first media alert of his disappearance.
Over the next several days, both local and state officials conducted follow-up interviews and searched the woods near the motel with a canine unit, as well as the riverbank and falls area and Rotary Park. Interviews with persons of interest were ongoing, and on April 21st, the timeline notes that detectives "took steps to preserve potential evidence."
Detectives continued searching quarries in the area. They checked an abandoned house as well as a sandpit. They followed up on reported sightings of Ralph, but in the words of the timeline, "All are a dead end." The investigative activities over the next two months, between April 30th and the end of June 2020, were more of the same, searching wooded areas and waterways, talking to witnesses and re-interviewing persons of interest, and securing evidence.
Two months after his reported disappearance, the media finally picked up the story. But they had nothing to report. There had been no sign of Ralph. The reported sightings didn't pan out. He hadn't contacted any of his family members in Vermont or New York or Massachusetts. And the fact that he left behind essential medications and other personal belongings didn't bode well.
Barrie Police Chief Tim Bombadier evaluated the possibilities of what happened to Ralph, telling the Rutland Daily Herald, quote, I've seen people just walk out the door and disappear for long periods of time. I've seen people walk out the door as a result of someone else doing them harm and it taking long periods of time to find that out.
And then we've seen people who just don't want to be found. And I don't know what the case is here. I mean, right now on face value, I believe somebody has harmed him." End quote. According to an Associated Press report in the Burlington Free Press, by late summer of 2020, the investigation so far led Berry Police to believe that one or more people were responsible for Ralph's disappearance.
and that people not directly involved knew exactly what happened to him. Although the interviews were ongoing, investigators needed to shake out more details, and they hoped that a financial benefit would do the trick.
In August of 2020, Berry Police announced a $5,000 reward for information about Ralph Jean Marie's disappearance. A month later, investigators elevated the stakes even further by implementing an uncommon and covert investigative approach.
In September of 2020, after nearly five months with no sign of Ralph Jean Marie, the state's attorney of Washington County decided to use a rare and secretive investigative tool to drum up new information in the case. According to Valley News writer Alan J. Keyes, state's attorney Rory Tybalt initiated an inquest. In an inquest, witnesses are compelled to provide testimony or evidence under oath before a judge.
The benefit of this procedure is that instead of police approaching someone on the street or bringing them into the station for an interview where the witness can refuse to speak to law enforcement, a witness is compelled to testify by a judge if subpoenaed for an inquest, and there are penalties for refusing to testify.
However, a witness can invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Anything gathered during an inquest is kept confidential until the investigation concludes. Because of the secretive nature of the inquest, Tybalt was tight-lipped about what sort of information investigators were seeking, but he did reveal, quote, I believe there are witnesses who know more than what they have revealed to investigators, end quote.
The investigation was active. In the five months since Ralph was reported missing, police had collected physical evidence, executed search warrants, and looked in areas where people thought Ralph's body might be found. Chief Bombardier told WCAX, quote, We have dive teams, drones, canine teams, people on foot, end quote.
But no matter the ongoing efforts to find Ralph in September of 2020, one of the biggest issues that plagued the investigation from the very beginning was the nearly three-day delay between the day Ralph actually disappeared and when his disappearance was reported. Quote, 68 hours is a lot of time to take care of getting rid of things, etc., cleaning things up, end quote.
The $5,000 reward was still out there, waiting for someone to find the courage and share what they knew with police. Meanwhile, Ralph Jean Marie's family was growing more and more frustrated with the lack of progress. They began to take matters into their own hands and speak up a little louder about their frustrations in public. With that, a clearer picture of Ralph's life at the time of his disappearance and the people in it started to come together.
In October of 2020, Ben Burke reported for the Brockton Enterprise that Ralph's cousin Fabiola Williams, along with another family member, had visited Barry from their home in Brockton, Massachusetts to speak with friends and people who knew Ralph themselves, including a woman they identified as Ralph's girlfriend, Bridgette Huckins. Fabiola was transparent with the reporter, saying that Ralph's relationship with Bridgette Huckins was troubled.
The pair had met in Brockton where Ralph lived at times throughout his life since he was a child. Ralph and Bridget had kids together, but Fabiola shared that they'd lost custody of the children. Bridgette Hutkins appears to have a long history with police,
Court documents obtained by the Brockton Enterprise showed that in 2014, Bridget was convicted of assaulting Ralph and stabbing an acquaintance and their dog when the acquaintance tried to step in and stop the assault against Ralph. As the investigation into Ralph's disappearance trudged forward, Bridget's history with police got even longer.
In August of 2020, Bridgette Huckins and a man named Thomas Partlow were arrested and charged in connection to a fatal drug overdose in Orange, Vermont. According to Eric Ramsdell's reporting for the Rutland Daily Herald, the grandmother of 29-year-old Jeffrey Cameron found Jeffrey unresponsive on the morning of June 5th, 2020.
She called 911 and suggested to first responders that he'd overdosed, as he was known to use heroin. He was pronounced dead, the apparent victim of an overdose due to heroin containing fentanyl. The investigation into the man's death spanned several months.
When Vermont State Police searched Jeffrey's cell phone, they found text messages between Jeffrey and a contact who identified themselves as Bridget Rose. They messaged back and forth about acquiring heroin, and Bridget Rose told Jeffrey to go to Smith Street in Barrie, where she lived. State Police executed a search warrant at the Smith Street home and took the sister of Thomas Partlow into custody.
She disclosed to police that the heroin which caused Jeffrey Cameron's overdose came from her brother, but either Thomas or Bridget might have been the one to actually sell it or provide it to Jeffrey. When state police located Bridget Huckins, she told them that Thomas Partlow had driven her to Williamstown, Vermont to pick up the heroin, and she herself was given two free doses for arranging a sale to Jeffrey Cameron.
Bridget Huckins and Thomas Partlow were arrested on charges of selling or dispensing a regulated drug with death resulting. Bridget pleaded not guilty to the charges. A conviction would mean a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. She was held at the correctional facility in South Burlington on $15,000 bail.
When asked about Ralph's girlfriend in connection to his case, Berry Police wouldn't confirm or deny any details. In all of the source material I've found up until this point, investigators themselves don't mention Bridget Huckins by name, and they don't really get more specific beyond the term significant other. For the record, I did reach out to Bridget for comment for this episode, but at the time of the episode's release, I have not heard back.
It would be about a year and a half before Bridget Huckins faced criminal court on the charges against her. She remained on pretrial detention, though perhaps due to the coronavirus pandemic permeating the Northeast in late 2020, she was eventually transferred to home confinement as she awaited trial. That year and a half, in addition to COVID-19 impacting every aspect of life across the globe, it was also a time of civil unrest.
People across the country were taking action for racial justice triggered by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. As activists took to the streets in protest of systemic racism and police violence, activists in Vermont were also taking action in support of Ralph Jean Marie.
In April of 2021, after nearly a year had passed with no sign of Ralph Jean Marie, a group of activists and documentary filmmakers decided to make it their mission to bring more attention to Ralph's story. They didn't know Ralph personally, but they knew that stories like Ralph's were far too common. A black man disappears under suspicious circumstances, and a black man disappears under suspicious circumstances.
and he doesn't receive the media attention that someone else, a white woman, for example, might receive. This was still months before the case of Gabby Petito raised even more criticism of how missing persons cases are covered depending on race and gender.
Tiana Langevin and Anthony Marquez were among the original group working on a four-part documentary covering Ralph's story, titled Silent City. Tiana and Anthony spoke with WCAX reporter Ike Ben-David ahead of the approaching one-year anniversary of Ralph's disappearance.
Tiana said that the goal of the project was to raise awareness and seek justice. Quote, the further we can get this story to reach, the more eyes and ears we can get on it. I don't know the man. I know the man as a statistic, but I don't know him as a human. So, through this documentary, we want to show him as a human and not just another statistic. End quote.
Meanwhile, other activists planned a demonstration at Burlington's Battery Park around the one-year anniversary. Among the organizers of the demonstration was Lee Morrigan, who told Ellie French of Vermont Digger that they and other activists spoke with hundreds of people in Barrie, asking around at gas stations and restaurants and other public places if anyone had heard of Ralph Jean Marie.
Lee hadn't encountered a single person who knew his name or his story. Lee suggested that since Barry didn't experience many homicides or missing persons cases, maybe the local authorities were ill-equipped to handle the investigation. It was a sentiment shared by many of the activists supporting his case, as well as Ralph's family members. But Barry Police and the state's attorney's office actively worked to prove this criticism wrong.
Chief Bombardier told Eric Blaisdell for the Times-Arges that police had searched close to 30 different locations at that point and conducted over 56 interviews as part of the year-long investigation. Police had previously announced a $5,000 reward for information, but Chief Bombardier said he was collaborating with other agencies to see if that number could increase as further incentive for those keeping secrets to finally speak up.
Though Berry Police continued to assure the public that Ralph's case was getting the investigative effort it needed, friends and activists were increasingly critical of the Berry Police Department's response and didn't think police were doing enough to find him.
According to the Times-Argus, activists demanded that Chief Bombardier bring in the FBI to assist in the investigation. Chief Bombardier stated that he had been in contact with the FBI and the FBI would step in when needed, and other federal, state, and local agencies were also actively assisting the case.
As state's attorney Rory Tibbitt told the Rutland Daily Herald, they weren't any closer to solving the case in April of 2021 than they were on day one. But it wasn't because the investigation was lacking resources. Quote, it's easy to say that it's indicative of a lack of effort or a lack of resolve on the part of law enforcement to find answers.
From my perspective as the state's attorney, I think nothing could be further from the truth. No single case has had more resources devoted to it by Berry City than the disappearance of Mr. Jean Marie. End quote. Thibault believed that the challenges lay in the fact that Ralph was reported missing 60 hours after he actually disappeared.
There wasn't a crime scene to survey, there was no body, no evidence that a weapon was used to harm him, and as reported by Eric Blaisdell, police had no suspect that had a motive to do Ralph any harm. On the one-year anniversary of Ralph Jean Marie's disappearance, Berry Police held a press conference at the Hollow Inn in Berry to reignite attention on the case.
Activists were among members of the media as Chief Bombardier spoke about the ongoing efforts to find Ralph. Activist Lee Morrigan was in the crowd, and they confronted the chief about the department's investigation. Lee said they had two sources that said there was security footage of the night of Ralph's disappearance from the motel. Lee wanted the chief to confirm the footage existed.
According to a statement from Lee Morrigan, shared on the Black Perspective Facebook page following the interaction at the press conference, Chief Bombardier would not confirm or deny that police had security footage from the hollow-in or any other nearby business. Quote, We talked in circles and that was about it. End quote. A week later, Chief Bombardier spoke with Colin Flanders for Seven Days Vermont, saying, quote,
If we had any information, video, photo, or a hard piece of evidence that releasing to the public would bring closure to this case, we would have already released it." In that same 7 Days Vermont piece, Flanders reported that he knocked on the doors of homes near the Hollow Inn and asked residents if they'd ever been interviewed by police about the night over a year prior when Ralph Jean Marie disappeared.
None of the people that Flanders spoke with that day reported ever speaking to detectives about the case. No one had come knocking over that past year. When asked why Berry Police didn't interview any neighbors, Chief Bombardier told the reporter, quote, that had not been brought to my attention until today, end quote.
Later, clearly frustrated with Flanders' questions regarding the investigative efforts and perceived oversights, Bombardier said, quote, I'm not going to second-guess where they put their priorities. We could play what-ifs all day, adding, It's great that you have, I guess, exposed a flaw in the investigation, end quote.
Activist Lee Morgan was infuriated by this information. Lee told the Seven Days Vermont reporter, quote, that's why I don't trust them to handle this case. They can't even do the bare f***ing minimum, end quote. Within hours of that quote being published in the Seven Days Vermont article, Lee says two Barry City detectives were on their doorstep.
According to Lee Morrigan's statement on the Black Perspective Facebook page, the two Barry police detectives standing on their doorstep wanted to know who told Lee about surveillance video from the hollow in a motel. They implored Lee to reveal their source, but Lee refused. Lee said they would only speak in an official capacity on the record. So the following Monday, Lee Morrigan received a subpoena.
They were called into a Washington County courtroom as part of the ongoing inquest for Ralph's case. Lee says in their statement that the judge compelled them to disclose the source, but Lee repeatedly refused. They told the judge and state's attorney Tybalt that they had personally never seen the footage, but they knew police had it, and so why were authorities so adamant about knowing Lee's sources?
According to reporting by Eric Blaisdell for the Times-Argus, Tybalt said that investigators wanted to know if there were other sources of information out there that police weren't aware of. After meeting with a public defender, Lee returned to the courtroom and again refused to share their source. Finally, after repeated refusals, the judge charged Lee Morrigan with contempt.
According to reporting by Grace Ellison for Vermont Digger, Washington County State's Attorney Rory Tibbult was seeking one to two days in jail and a $500 fine for the contempt charge. It wasn't about Lee revealing the source anymore. This was about showing others what happens when you violate a court process order.
Tybalt is quoted in Vermont Digger saying, "There are others that we are actively subpoenaing, under subpoena, or intended to be subpoenaed in this process. And the state believes it would have a chilling effect on the appearance or candor of these individuals to watch as there's no repercussion for refusal to cooperate." Lee said they didn't want to reveal their sources in fear of retaliation by Berry Police against that source.
When asked why they were so adamant about police disclosing the existence of the surveillance video, Lee said, "The whole point of this is questioning what is so dangerous about this video." The video, if it existed, if it contained relevant information, and if it was released, could potentially be detrimental to uncovering the truth about what happened to Ralph Jean Marie and who might be responsible.
State's attorney Rory Tybalt said that making any such evidence or info public would jeopardize the ongoing work of investigators. If they let the public in on everything they were learning, any evidence they might have, it could harm the case and future prosecution if a suspect was ever brought to trial. The contempt charge against Lee Morgan threatened to become a distraction from the most important issue at hand.
Ralph Jean Marie was still missing. As Lee awaited their day in court, the investigation of Ralph's disappearance continued. Police faced their own distractions as rumors and unfounded reports trickled in.
In June of 2021, investigators again returned to the water in the greater Berry area with submersible drones. Tips continued to direct police to quarries and waterways in search of evidence or possibly Ralph Jean Marie's body. Berry Police worked in collaboration with a Minnesota company called Crossman Consulting, who provided the underwater drones for the search.
According to reporting in the Rutland Daily Herald by Eric Blaisdell, the documentary crew that had taken up Ralph's story had actually found Crossman Consulting and brought their services to police to further the search effort. The film crew, headed by Anthony Marquez, was becoming part of the ongoing investigation.
The group of activists and documentarians that was once critical of how Barry Police were handling the case was now working in collaboration with detectives and had created at least two videos for Barry Police as of July 2021. The first video featured detectives explaining parts of the ongoing investigation, and the second, according to the Rutland Daily Herald, covered details of the underwater search.
The Berry Police linked these videos in their official news releases, though when I follow those links today, I land on a YouTube page that says, Video Unavailable. This video is private.
TV news coverage in 2021, however, appears to use clips from the videos when talking about the underwater search. The search of quarries in Graniteville, Vermont spanned five days between June 20th and 25th, 2021. Despite the time, effort, and finances expended on the underwater searches, Chief Bombardier shared with ABC Local 22 News that the searches had not uncovered anything of evidentiary value.
The search was not altogether pointless, though. Ruling out the quarries as a possible location of evidence, or of Ralph's body, further narrowed the investigation and served to dispel the rumors that continued to circulate. Rumors that, according to Eric Blaisdell's reporting, police were beginning to suspect were intentionally crafted as misdirection from the truth.
State's Attorney Rory Tibble told 7 Days Vermont that his office was aware of videos and photos sent to Barry City Police claiming to show Ralph being killed.
The evidence was not credible. Actually, Seven Days Vermont reports that one of the videos was a scene from a movie. And the quarry theory, Chief Bombardier said, was a common one when someone disappears in central Vermont. Whether those theories and rumors were based on credible information remains to be seen. With that, Berry City Police had no intention of returning to the quarries for more searches with the underwater drones,
until or unless the department received specific, credible information regarding a search location. The expense was just too great to be out conducting random searches. While investigators chased down rumors and activists continue to hold the Berry City Police Department accountable for their efforts in Ralph Jean Marie's case, activist Lee Morrigan's attorney worked to get the contempt charges against Lee thrown out.
Eric Blaisdell reported in July of 2021 for the Times-Argus that Lee Morrigan's attorney, Avi Springer, filed paperwork to have the contempt charges dismissed under Vermont's SHIELD law. The SHIELD law protects journalists from having to disclose their sources in court. Since Lee Morrigan was working with the documentary crew covering Ralph Jean-Marie's story at the time they appeared in court as part of the inquest, Lee could be considered a journalist protected by this law.
Interestingly, according to court documents, Lee Morrigan explained that they were no longer working with the documentary team and that they had a falling out with one of the primary people on that team, Anthony Marquez, in April of 2021.
falling out was around the same time Lee was charged with contempt. However, court documents show that Lee Morrigan had evidence they were at one point actively involved in the production of the documentary and operating in the role of a journalist. Ten exhibits submitted as evidence in the case contained text messages between Lee and subjects of the documentary as well as between Lee and Anthony Marquez who has
who was identified in court documents as the documentary's producer. Exhibit 10 included text messages between Anthony Marquez and Lee Morrigan as recent as April 7, 2021.
In Judge Mary L. Morrissey's decision, she writes, quote, Based on the existing record, the court concludes that the information sought by the state, specifically relating to the alleged existence of a video taken at the scene of Mr. Jean Marie's disappearance, was received by defendant while they were engaged in journalism. The state is barred from compelling disclosure of this information from defendant, and
and contempt proceedings cannot be grounded on the failure of defendant to disclose otherwise privileged information. Accordingly, the contempt proceeding filed against defendant must be dismissed.
Following the dismissed charge, Lee told the Times-Argus, quote, law enforcement does not get to act with impunity. I feel like this has really strengthened my resolve in that, strengthened my conviction to stand up for what I believe in and to call out inappropriate and insufficient behavior by law enforcement, end quote.
This whole thing grew out of accusations that police had security footage from the hollow inn and motel where Ralph Jean Marie was reportedly last seen alive, and they were unwilling or unable to release it to the public. After this several months-long diversion in court, Berry City Police still would not confirm or deny that any such evidence exists.
In February of 2022, another conclusion to lingering charges finally came when Bridgette Huckins was convicted on a felony count of selling a regulated drug with death resulting. Eric Blaisdell reported that Huckins received a 30-month sentence but received credit for time served following a year and four months of home confinement while she awaited charges. She was also placed on 10 years probation.
The mother of Jeffrey Cameron, the man who died as a result of the fentanyl-laced heroin he purchased from Bridgette Hutkins, spoke at the sentencing hearing. She told Bridgette of the pain that she felt as a mother, knowing that she'll never get to wish her son a happy birthday or tell him how much she loved being his mom. She also hoped that Bridgette would take this as a wake-up call and an opportunity to turn her life around. Bridgette was also given an opportunity to give a statement.
In the statement, she accepted responsibility for her actions, saying, quote, I understand that nothing I can say will bring him back. I never meant for him to get hurt or die. I, in fact, was trying to do what I thought was right and make him feel better. I myself know, as a recovering addict, what the excruciating pain of detoxing off opiates feels like. I honestly and truly wish I could trade places with him. End quote.
I want to say, for the avoidance of doubt, that at this point in the investigation, Bridget Huckins has never been publicly named a suspect by investigators in the disappearance of Ralph Jean Marie. However, the lead Berry City police detective did identify Ralph Jean Marie's girlfriend at the time of his disappearance as a person of interest. Family members have identified Bridget Huckins in the press as the person Ralph was dating when he disappeared.
In reporting by Seven Days Vermont, published in 2021, it's noted that it was Bridget Huckins who told police about the dispute between herself and Ralph at the hotel. It was Bridget who said he walked off, took nothing with him, and never came back. In the same article, Chief Bombardier references Bridget Huckins' report, saying, quote, Does her story make sense to you? That he left all those things behind? End quote.
Does it make sense? Does any piece of the story surrounding the night of Ralph Jane Marie's disappearance make sense? If it did, perhaps Ralph's family, friends, and supporters wouldn't still be waiting for answers. But as another year passed, the case was no closer to a conclusion. One month before the two-year anniversary of Ralph's disappearance, a change in leadership within Berry City Police meant the case was about to change hands too.
A new Berry City police chief took over from Tim Bombadier in March of 2022. Braden "Brad" Vail told the Times-Argus that he received the rather large case file for Ralph Jean Marie's disappearance and he wanted to quote, "reinvigorate the case."
In an interview with reporter Eric Blaisdell, Chief Vail said, quote,
"Oh yeah, by the way, I forgot to mention when we were talking there was, you know, whatever. That's my hope anyway." The public attention on Ralph's story had tapered off in the previous year, but sporadic tips and leads still came in. Chief Vail noted that his department had received at least two new leads since he'd taken over, but nothing that led investigators to Ralph or his body or any evidence that progressed the case forward.
But in May of 2022, state's attorney Rory Tibbult released a new detail to the public. It was the biggest development in the case in the previous year, and it potentially further narrowed the timeline of Ralph's disappearance. But it also raised more questions about the reported timeline too.
According to a news report by Zuri Hoffman for NBC5 News, around 2 p.m. on April 13th, roughly 13 hours after the reported time of Ralph's disappearance, a call came in to an out-of-state medical provider. The unknown caller requested a refill of a prescription in Ralph's name. The refill was never picked up. Two days later, Ralph was reported missing. Who called in that refill?
Was it Ralph? Someone else? It almost feels relevant to ask what the prescription was for, too, since Ralph reportedly left all of his medications behind at the motel when he left. If police have any of that information about the phone call or prescription today, it must not be enough to clinch the case or confirm any of the myriad theories that continue to surround the investigation.
A year later in 2023, another somber anniversary came and went for Ralph's disappearance. Chief Vail told the Times-Argus that although he was eager to reinvigorate the case when he took over a year before, the investigative efforts he mentioned, like re-interviewing witnesses, hadn't happened yet. He also had not been in touch with Ralph's family in the year since he took over, and he admitted his fault there.
Chief Vail did say, however, that in the past year, detectives recovered a piece of evidence in the case.
The evidence was a cell phone that was believed to belong to Ralph at one time, but it had been left behind at another motel in Barrie, and it didn't appear to contain anything that might further their ongoing search efforts. There was still a $5,000 reward for information leading to the location of Ralph Jean Marie and those responsible for his disappearance, but I guess it wasn't a big enough carrot for anyone still sitting on crucial details.
Ralph's supporters had continued their own independent efforts to investigate his disappearance, too. Chief Vail, as well as the new state's attorney, Michelle Donnelly, told the Times-Argus that they understood why the group wanted to continue searching for answers on their own, and while they were in support of the independent efforts, they cautioned that anything the group learned or found had to be carefully reported and handled.
A case built on evidence gathered by anyone other than law enforcement simply wouldn't hold up in court.
On April 15, 2023, those supporters and activists, now organized under a group called Justice for Ralph, gathered outside the city of Barrie police station to speak to the media about the still-unsolved case and again raise their concerns about the treatment that Ralph's case had received from day one, treatment that supporters said was based on race and socioeconomic status.
The fact that Ralph was a black man living in a hotel on a state voucher. A friend of Ralph's, Dylan Riley, spoke to WCAX on the three-year anniversary, saying of Ralph, quote, He made a family. He made a life for himself. People get placed in a category, and once that happens, it's like no matter what happens to that person, they're not going to be important enough for someone to pull together resources. End quote.
The Justice for Ralph group, which included Anthony Marquez, Trayvon Groves, and Mohamed Abdi from the Silent City documentary team, also spoke to the media. And they again raised their concerns about this contentious security camera footage from the hollow-in motel. They pressured police to release the footage.
Though he was not in attendance that day, Berry City Police Chief Brad Vail did address the security camera footage that had long been at the center of a major debate in the case. Though the previous chief, Timothy Bombadier, never confirmed or denied the tape's existence in the past, Chief Vail more or less confirmed there was footage.
He said that the police department did not have a copy of it, but told WCAX reporter Rachel Mann that an investigator had reviewed the footage on the scene. A little over a month later, on May 25th, 2023, the documentary team of Muhammad Abdi, Trayvon Groves, and Anthony Marquez appeared on Town Meeting TV, a local government-access television station in Burlington, Vermont.
In their interview with host Megan O'Rourke, Traven, Anthony, and Mohamed addressed the still-lingering issues after over three years of an investigation into Ralph's disappearance. They leveled several claims against investigators and mentioned details about the case and evidence they knew about that, at this point, I haven't been able to verify in other sources.
I'll link the video and the source material of this episode at darkdowneast.com if you want to hear the full interview for yourself, though. At the end of the interview, Town Meeting TV aired what appeared to be a trailer or teaser of the documentary that the Justice for Ralph team had been working on over the past three years.
The video featured interviews with former Berry City Police Chief Timothy Bombadier and Detective Corporal Joel Pierce about the early days of the investigation and the search and investigative efforts that began, according to Tim Bombadier, the same day that Ralph was reported missing.
Police searched the woods with K-9 units, interviewed the individuals connected to the missing persons report, and within days, sent out press releases to local media about Ralph Jean Murray's disappearance. Or rather, they tried to send out press releases. From the beginning, activists and supporters were critical of the delay between Ralph's reported disappearance and when the public learned about it. About a month passed before Ralph's name and photo were on the news.
Both Detective Pierce and former Berry City Chief Bombardier explained in the video that the initial press releases bounced back. The email addresses they sent them to were bad, and they didn't realize the tech glitch until a few days later. Detective Pierce said they sent out the press release again via fax to ensure it landed on the assignment desks in local newsrooms. However, they didn't receive a response.
Bombardier chalked up the media's lack of interest in Ralph's story to COVID-19 dominating the news cycle. Remember, this was happening in April of 2020. The media appeared to finally pick up the story when Barry's City Police called the news stations to ask for coverage on Ralph's story, and again with the announcement of the $5,000 reward. At the end of the video, which is about 13 minutes long, the focus shifts. We hear the voice of Ralph G. Murray's son.
He shares his gratitude and appreciation for everyone who's helped him cope with the challenges of his father's disappearance. He says, quote, He continues, End quote.
I tried to track down the documentary team to speak with them as part of this episode about Ralph Jean Marie. I wanted to ask about their ongoing work to bring attention to Ralph's story and where the documentary stands today. I sent messages on social media, on LinkedIn, and I tried any email addresses and website contact forms I could find that looked like they might reach any of the three men. But at the time of this episode's release, I haven't heard back from anyone. So, what now?
I contacted Barrie City Police Chief Brad Vail for an update on the case of Ralph Jean Marie as of August 2023.
He told me via email, quote, as leads come in, they are followed up on. Unfortunately, there have been no leads that have provided results that can move the investigation forward to closure or otherwise, end quote. In an attempt to put one of the biggest debates at the center of this case to bed, I followed up with the chief to ask if he could confirm that security footage from the hotel or any other source exists or at one time existed as part of the case.
and if the footage contained anything of evidentiary value. I did not hear back. After numerous searches, interviewing and re-interviewing persons of interest and witnesses, collecting and testing evidence, and exhausting all leads, there's still nothing that points to where Ralph is today or what might have happened to him.
It's clear, and previous law enforcement officials who worked on the case even admitted their faults, that the investigation was plagued by missteps and oversight from day one. The first press releases failed to reach media outlets because of bad email addresses. Detectives never knocked on the doors of neighboring residences to interview people about what they may have seen or heard that night.
Just those two publicized faults bring into question what else investigators may have missed in the last three years. I learned something while looking into this case. According to 911 call reports for the night of April 13th, 2020, a call came in to Barrie City Police Dispatch at 1.14 a.m. It was a noise complaint at 278 South Main Street in Barrie, room number 202.
That's the address of the Hollow Inn and Motel. Barrie City Police Sergeant Robert Miller was dispatched to the location at 1:15 a.m. and was en route by 1:18 a.m. Sergeant Miller arrived on scene at the motel at 1:24 a.m. on April 13, 2020. Three minutes later, the officer left. By 1:27 a.m., the noise complaint call at the Hollow Inn and Motel was cleared.
The 911 call report is redacted and does not contain any substance of the officers' conversations while on scene. But the name of the caller and the subject of the noise complaint are both listed. The caller gave the address of the motel as his residence in room 102. The subject of the complaint gave an address in Northfield, Vermont, a town about 20 minutes away.
There are a few things about this 911 call that make it, well, interesting. You'll remember that Ralph Jane Marie was reported missing from the Holloway Motel at 278 South Main Street in Barrie. The alleged time he walked away from the motel was approximately 1 a.m. on April 13th, 2020.
The 911 call for a noise complaint at the very same location came in at 1:14 AM. And then there's this. While I won't use his name, I'll tell you that the subject of the noise complaint that night is a person with known connections to Bridgette Huckins, the woman who Ralph was in a relationship with at the time of his disappearance.
Even if these circumstances, the timing of the call, the location of the call, and the people connected to the call mean nothing at all, isn't it still compelling that a Berry City police officer was on the scene during the same approximate window of time that a man was later reported missing? Did that officer hear anything? See anything? He only spent three minutes on the scene. If he had lingered longer,
Would he have learned something about the disappearance of Ralph Jean Marie? It's all just very interesting. Maybe the answer lies in that 911 call. Or maybe it was just a bizarre coincidence.
Maybe there's something to learn from the security footage from the hotel on the night of Ralph's disappearance. Or maybe the tape, if it in fact exists, is empty, showing nothing but a flickering streetlight and faded white lines in a parking lot. Maybe it will all come down to a witness, who has yet to tell the full truth, but who could bring closure to the case with one illuminating statement.
In the words of former Washington County State's Attorney Rory Tibbott, quoted in the Rutland Daily Herald, "...the only way we'll get to the truth is when someone has the courage to come forward, tell the truth, and share vital information that's missing."
Ralph's cousin, Fabiola Williams, told the Brockton Enterprise, quote,
Ralph was a giving person. He wasn't the type of person who would even get mad. He was a really easygoing person."
Life had been tumultuous for Ralph, but that doesn't preclude him from a full investigation and the attention his case needs to reach a conclusion. So, please, share his story, say his name, and help Ralph's family seek justice for the son, brother, cousin, and father they desperately miss.
Ralph Jean Marie is a 38-year-old black man, 5 feet 10 inches tall, about 140 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. He was last seen wearing gray pajama pants, a gray Carhartt jacket, Adidas shoes, and a hat with the word King on it.
If you have information about the disappearance of Ralph Jean Marie in Barrie, Vermont on April 13th, 2020, please contact Barrie Police at 802-476-6613. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. Sources cited and referenced for this episode are listed at darkdowneast.com. Please follow Dark Down East on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening right now.
And if you could, leave a review on Apple Podcasts. I love to hear what you think of the show and what you want to hear next. And reviews are really the best way to support this show and the cases I cover. If you have a personal connection to a case and you want me to cover it on this podcast, please contact me at hello at darkdowneast.com.
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 homicide cases. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East.
