Truck belonging to Donald Messier - missing since ’06 - found in the Winooski River

October 5, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti



Diver Nick Rinn with the Adventures With Purpose search team holds up the rear license plate pulled from what is believed to be Donald Messier’s Ford F-150 Pickup Truck. Photo by Gordon Miller

Wednesday evening update from Vermont State Police:

Troopers will hold the scene along River Road near the Winooski River in Waterbury overnight. Search operations are tentatively planned to resume at about 9 a.m. Thursday and involve divers from the Vermont State Police Scuba Team, with assistance provided by Adventures With Purpose. Following those efforts, police and a tow service will attempt to remove the truck from the water. VSP’s Crime Scene Search Team will be on scene.

Nearly 16 years after the disappearance of Donald Messier, a dive team specializing in cracking missing person cases has found what they believe to be Messier’s truck submerged in 10 feet of water in the Winooski River in Duxbury.

It’s unclear whether the truck contains any human remains and members of the Adventures With Purpose search team notified Vermont State Police of their discovery today. By afternoon, multiple personnel from the state police were on the site near the Duxbury Community Garden planning logistics to remove the vehicle from the river and up a steep bank.

Detective Amber Keener explained that the challenge would be to preserve the vehicle while removing it from its resting place. Members of the state police dive team were called to assess the site before any recovery began. It was unclear if there would be time to accomplish the task on Wednesday before nightfall.

The Adventures With Purpose team arrived in Waterbury on Monday night with two days to spend searching the area more thoroughly than they were able to do when they visited for part of the day on Oct. 2, 2021.

[...]