UPDATED NEWS: Land owner: Police ‘grasping at straws’ in Kim Moreau search

CANTON — Authorities searching a second day for the body of Kim Moreau said at a Friday morning press conference they continued to be optimistic they would find something.

Det. Sgt. Mark Holmquist from the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit said searchers, which included five trained dogs, had finished a sweep of the 5-acre property owned by Brian Enman at 502 Pleasant St. (Route 108) and have moved into two abutting neighbors’ properties, based on the dogs showing interest in those properties. 

On Thursday, police began searching Enman’s property with ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs for evidence of Moreau, who went missing on prom night, May 10, 1986, when she was 17 years old. 

Police have said that the night Moreau went missing she drove around town with a girlfriend and two 25-year-olds, one of them Enman. After telling her sister at 11 p.m. that she’d be home in an hour, she wasn’t seen by her family again. 

Neither Enman nor his family owned the property when Moreau disappeared.

Holmquist said Friday Enman was at the property and was cooperating with authorities. Holmquist also said:

— Yesterday authorities probed the slab underneath Enman’s double-wide mobile home with ground-penetrating radar and cleared that area, determining nothing was in the slab. 

— Authorities may extend the search into Saturday morning if needed.

— Ground-penetrating radar is done for now, but could be called back.

Holmquist would not comment on whether the search so far had uncovered any evidence of Moreau’s body. Similarly, authorities have declined to reveal what led to serving the warrant and conducting the search, which was a coordinated effort with state police, the Maine Warden Service and local and county police, with an assist from the University of Maine.

According to the Associated Press, Enman’s phone rang unanswered Friday afternoon. But he told the Kennebec Journal that he had no involvement in Moreau’s disappearance and said police are “grasping for straws.”

This story will be updated.