More than two months after a Barre man went missing under the suspicion of foul play, a small wave of public outrage is building about a perceived lack of attention on the case.
Police said Ralph “Rizz” Jean-Marie, 38, walked away after a dispute with his “significant other” at Hollow Inn on Barre’s South Main Street on April 13. He left his cellphone, glasses, wallet, and medication behind, and hasn’t been seen or heard from since, police said.
Authorities have been investigating the case for over two months. Because of the items Jean-Marie left behind, foul play is suspected, which law enforcement says is “very rare” for a missing persons case in Vermont.
“If you go back historically and look at missing persons that have turned into homicide cases, there’s not a bunch of them,” said Barre Public Safety Director Tim Bombardier. “This is not a commonplace thing.”
Jean-Marie is Black, 5 feet 10 inches tall and 140 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. Police say he was last seen wearing gray pajama pants, a gray Carhartt jacket, a hat that says “King,” and Adidas shoes. He has ties to Massachusetts and New York.
The case wasn’t written about until June 17, in a Times Argus story, more than two months after Barre police first put the word out that Jean-Marie was missing, despite a number of social media posts seeking more public attention to be brought to the case. That includes a Facebook page dedicated to Jean-Marie’s disappearance, and a post on the Black Lives Matter VT Facebook group calling on Vermonters to call Barre Police about the case, stating, “This is not the first time a Black person has gone missing without any great media attention.”
Bombardier said Barre police have been giving the case their full attention, noting that a public bulletin was put out about Jean-Marie’s disappearance less than 48 hours after receiving the call that he was missing. Since then, he said the department has had an investigator assigned to the case, who has been updating Jean-Marie’s family on a weekly basis and putting out periodic updates to the public.
Despite the age of the case, Bombardier said the investigation has in no way dried up. He said it’s still something the department is pursuing actively.
“I don’t think more than a day has gone by that we haven’t gotten at least some type of information,” Bombardier said, though he noted some of the information they receive has already been reported by a prior caller, and some has quickly proven to be false.
The chief said it’s clear that a lot of people are still very invested in seeing the case through to the end.
“I think people out there really want to help find Ralph and are still hoping for the best,” Bombardier said. “That said, as days go by, that starts to not look good, and the longer it goes by, the longer it doesn’t look good.”
Bombardier said he’s seen cases where people return from disappearance after several years, but because of how little Jean-Marie had on his person when he went missing, he thinks that outcome is unlikely in this case. Suicide, Bombardier said, is also not likely, as Jean-Marie had never suggested to anyone in his life that he had suicidal ideations of any kind.
Bombardier declined to comment on any specific suspects in the case, as the investigation is still ongoing, but noted that police are interested in speaking with anyone with information, particularly those who saw him around the time of the disappearance.
“Anybody that had contact with Ralph Jean-Marie the week before and after his disappearance is a person of interest,” Bombardier said. “Meaning we’d be interested in knowing all the details they know.”
Barre police are working with state and federal agencies in the ongoing investigation.
“I firmly believe that there are people out there that have more information that they have not shared with us,” he said. “I would encourage anybody that has that kind of information to contact the Barre City PD.”
