The search for the body of a missing Baton Rouge teen continues weeks after his disappearance, as volunteer groups scour thousands of acres for answers.
The United Cajun Navy, a volunteer search and rescue group, and a canine tracking outfit from Texas have searched roughly 3,000 acres over the past week, including more than 90 dumpsters and trash cans, in search of JaโDerrius Minnieweatherโs body.
The ongoing search began June 6, after 15-year-old Minnieweather was allegedly beaten to death by 51-year-old Maurice Parms outside a north Baton Rouge home.
The volunteer groups have been searching Baton Rouge area parks, landfills and suspected dumpsites, originally under the assumption Minnieweather was alive, now they continue their search using human remains detection dogs as local police believe the teen is dead.
United Cajun Navy Incident Commander Josh Gill works with Team Texas K-9s, using five of their certified canines trained in scent tracking and detecting human remains to search on land and in water.
โWe've got five certified canines, overly qualified canines, probably some of the best in the country,โ Gill said. โI mean, the dogs will do everything but fight and sniff out drugs, so they're anything to do with the person.โ
The canines, when facing into the wind, can smell something up to 10 miles away. While the team is searching much smaller areas on foot, the scent range makes for faster search times.
โAs far as what the dogs do, and how they can smell everything,โ Canine Handler Crystal Fields said. โWhen you're making breakfast, you got sausage cooking, bacon cooking, your eggs. (The canine) smells the egg, she smells the bacon, she smells every ingredient in that sausage, the grease, anything, salt, pepper, she smells all of it.โ
When searches began two weeks ago, hundreds of community members joined group searches, canvassing several areas in search of Minnieweather. Only Gill and Fieldsโ teams have continued looking along with local law enforcement.
โWeโre more proficient and efficient, we can knock s*** out fast,โ Gill said. โIโm always concerned with if (volunteers) do stumble upon him, thatโs a life changer.โ
The groups will continue their search until they have to move on to another search and rescue later in the week, but until then they will continue searching areas of interest given through tips by the community.
Connection to 16-year-old girl
Police believe that Parms beat Minneweather to death following a dispute over how Parms was treating a 16-year-old girl. The girl was a longtime friend of Minneweather's, whom Parms had allegedly recently begun grooming.
Prior to his first-degree murder charge for Minneweather's alleged killing, Parms was arrested on counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile and computer-aided solicitation of a minor.
He was confronted by Baton Rouge police at his home on Saturday morning.
Police say that, following the confrontation between the teenage boy and Parms, they believe Parms stashed Minnieweather's body and threw away evidence. Police say he allegedly came back to retrieve the evidence and possibly the victim's body and transported them elsewhere in his truck.
Minnieweather was last seen around 2 a.m. June 5 on Bradley Street in the Foster and Winbourne area, police said.
In their investigation, detectives learned that Minnieweather went to see the 16-year-old longtime female friend on Thursday, June 4, riding a small children's bike to her residence on Bradley Street.
In talking to police, Parms admitted he had been at the residence on Bradley Street on June 4. Parms said he met Minnieweather only briefly and left soon after the encounter. However, police said security footage contradicted Parms' account and showed Parms riding from the scene of the crime on a bicycle that is similar to one used by Minnieweather.
Video footage
Security footage obtained by police showed Parms left his residence early on the morning of June 5 in his white truck and returned within an hour, the arrest warrant states.
Detectives obtained a search warrant for Parms' cellphone, which showed the phone was left at his home during the time frame when he was on cameral leaving in the truck. It also shows that Parms was at home when he is seen on foot and riding a small kid's bike from the scene of the crime, the arrest warrant states.
Detectives obtained video of a tall Black man dragging a garbage can to a spot in the 3200 block of Conrad Street.
They also found a video from a minute later of a man matching Parms' body type riding a small kid's bike away from Conrad toward Charles Street. A tall male was also seen getting off the bike and throwing it into some bushes. He is then seen taking off a black mask, gloves and a T-shirt, which he throws into several garbage cans.
Additional video showed Parms in his truck as he returned to the garbage cans to retrieve the shirt, gloves and mask, police said. He then returns to his residence and is seen wiping down areas of his truck with a rag.
After witnesses described observing a tall man beating a smaller person while a kid's bike was in the middle of the roadway, detectives were able to locate blood that had soaked into the ground. Detectives obtained a search warrant for Parms' truck, which tested positive for the presence of blood.