Leo Paul Massicotte, who has been missing since July 3, 2011.When Leo Paul George Massicotte told his girlfriend to drop him off to trek through remote woods to a friend's house through Arnold Engineering and Development Center land, no one knew he would never again be seen alive.
Manchester, Tenn., police say human remains found on Nov. 10 near the area where authorities searched in April are Massicotte's, confirmed by a DNA match to samples provided by family members when the Manchester man went missing in 2011.
Manchester police investigator Butch Stewart said that after a forensic examination that no foul play is suspected in the 3-year-old case.
Searchers had been very close on occasion but just didn't step close enough to Massicotte's body to spot it, Stewart said.
Massicotte, 33 when he disappeared, was the subject of searches in 2011 and another last spring in the area south of Skinner Flat Road on AEDC's property on the west side of Interstate 24.
That search turned up no evidence, but a pair of squirrel hunters on Nov. 10 told police their dog discovered a human skull in the same area, reviving the case.
Officer Alberto Garza was the initial investigator in 2011 when Massicotte was reported missing by his sister and mother on July 5, 2011.
Massicotte's then-girlfriend, Jessica Amber Poe, told Garza that Massicotte claimed "people were watching them" and told her to drive him to Skinner Flat Road so he could walk to a friend's house who lived on Miller Crossroads near Hillsboro, according to the original police report. Poe dropped Massicotte off about 4:30 p.m. that day in July 2011, the report states.
Poe told Garza that Massicotte "appeared normal" when she dropped him off but could have been taking drugs, according to the report.
"He was less than a mile from where he got out of the vehicle," Stewart said on Wednesday. "I've been within 400 yards of him a couple of times."
The bones were intact and undamaged by any obvious violent injury, he said.
Massicotte was a construction worker who had at least four children in Coffee County and Florida, according to Stewart. He had no other family in the area.
Stewart said the confirmation of the identity closes the 2011 case, the only open missing persons case in Coffee County.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or twitter.com/BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1 or 423-757-6569.
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