One year ago, Ralph Jean-Marie went missing.
On April 13, 2020, he walked away from the Hollow Inn in Barre, where he was living, after a fight with his girlfriend — leaving his glasses, wallet and medication behind.
Jean-Marie never got in contact with his family and has not been seen or heard from since. Police have identified the 38-year-old’s disappearance as suspicious and say foul play is likely. However, after 12 months of investigation, including a $5,000 reward for information, the case appears to have stalled out.
Now, activists are demanding that the Barre City Police Department call in some backup — specifically, the FBI. They say that because Jean-Marie was a poor, Black man, his case is being ignored and brushed aside — and they want to change that.
“He was a human being,” said Andrew Kranichfeld, one of the organizers of an upcoming demonstration for Jean-Marie. “He had children. He had parents. He had cousins. He deserves a fair shake and anything else other people get.”
For more than two months after Jean-Marie’s disappearance, there wasn’t a single news story written about the case, despite a slew of social media posts demanding that people pay attention to the missing man.
After the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis in June, that changed, beginning with a Times Argus story June 17. It was followed by several small vigils and protests in Barre, and a short wave of local media coverage.
In September, Barre police announced a secret inquest to gather evidence and bring witnesses into court to say under oath what they knew about Jean-Marie’s disappearance.
As the one-year mark approaches, activists say there should have been more progress in the investigation.
A group that includes Anthony Marques, a local filmmaker, is set to release a documentary about the case called “A Silent City: The Ralph Jean-Marie Story” in the coming weeks.
On April 13, Barre Police Chief Tim Bombardier plans to hold a press conference to mark the anniversary of Jean-Marie’s disappearance. Bombardier declined to comment about the case before Tuesday’s press conference, saying he didn’t want to appear to Jean-Marie’s family as if he had “jumped the gun on them or cut them out of any potential involvement.”
Activists plan a demonstration at Burlington’s Battery Park on April 17, demanding that Bombardier bring in the FBI.
“Basically the police are offering a $5,000 reward and asking the public, if you know something, come forward. They say they’ve done an exhaustive search; they’ve done everything they can; they’re just waiting until someone from the public is ready to come clean,” said Lee Morrigan, a local activist. “What I’m hearing is OK, so you’ve exhausted your resources. It sounds like it’s time to call in somebody else.”
Morrigan said Barre police have dealt with only a small handful of homicides and missing persons cases in recent years. Local police may not have the expertise they need to solve the case, she said.
But what’s even more concerning, Morrigan said, is how little people in Barre seem to know or care about the case. Morrigan, along with several other activists, have spent hours walking into gas stations, garages and restaurants, asking people if they know about Jean-Marie’s disappearance.
They say they’ve talked to hundreds of people who live and work in Barre, and so far, not a single one has so much as heard of Jean-Marie.
“I even asked the assistant city manager about the case, and she had no idea who I was talking about,” Morrigan said. “I literally felt my mouth start to get ahead of me like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ So I restrained myself and started telling her about the case, and she said ‘Yeah, it’s kind of coming back to me. I think I know what you’re talking about.’ That attitude is so concerning to me.”
Morrigan said in a city the size of Barre and a case with as many “crazy details” as Jean-Marie’s, everyone in town should know his name.
“I only started getting involved in activism a year ago after George Floyd was murdered, and I’ve spent almost that whole year going deeper and deeper into Ralph’s case,” Morrigan said. “It went from being disturbing to now, honestly, I’m just angry. Are we really OK with living in a state where a Black man can be murdered with impunity and police have no accountability for finding him?”
Mohamed Abdi, co-founder of the Black Perspective in Burlington, said last summer, Battery Park protesters had their own police department to worry about. This summer, he said finding Ralph Jean-Marie is one of their top priorities. He said it’s his goal right now to deliver the whole story to Burlington and drum up some activism for the case in the Queen City, in an attempt to put more pressure on Barre.
“I’d like to consider everyone to be good people, but it seems like one of the reasons why there’s not much pressure out there to find out what happened is because he’s a Black male,” Abdi said. “Until we find out what happened to him, our team is going to stay on this.”
