BATON ROUGE — On Wednesday, Aug. 19—more than two months since he was last seen by family—remains discovered in the North Landfill were confirmed to be those of 15-year-old Ja’Derrius Minnieweather, the coroner’s office announced. The positive identification comes after multiple law enforcement agencies shared that on Tuesday, remains were located in the landfill.
Baton Rouge Police Chief TJ Morse shared that after thousands of hours in diligent planning and excavation efforts, which have spanned more than six weeks, evidence was discovered Tuesday morning that he is hopeful are those of Ja’Derrius Minnieweather.
“This morning, after the hard work our collaborative search teams have done so far, I can report that we’ve located suspected human remains, and the evidence gives me hope that these remains belong to Ja’Derrius,” Morse said.
BRPD Homicide detectives have now turned over the collected evidence to the Coroner’s Office for processing. This will include DNA testing by the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab to identify the remains. That process could take anywhere from one day to multiple days for accurate results, the chief said.
On Wednesday, the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Office released the following:
With the assistance of the LSU FACES Lab, led by Dr. Ginesse Listi, and the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab, the East
Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Office has made a positive identification of the remains of Ja’Derrius Minnieweather using DNA comparison.At this time, the cause and manner of Mr. Minnieweather’s death are still pending.
Our condolences are extended to Ja’Derrius Minnieweather’s family and friends.
Yesterday, the chief said that while he cannot officially speculate on whether what was found is actually Minnieweather’s remains, he said he remains “very, very hopeful.”
Before starting the search at the North Landfill, officials narrowed down the 400-acre site to a smaller area. Using GPS coordinates from the machinery that spread out the material at the dump, officials narrowed down the search area to give them the best chances in locating Minnieweather’s remains.
Since the search kicked off six weeks ago, crews of local and federal workers processed nearly 4,000 tons of material broken into 27 working cells, Morse said. This resulted in nearly 17,500 man-hours and 821 search shifts working in the July and August heat and dense humidity. Each search team was made up of approximately 15 people, with an additional 30 dedicated to logistics, medical decontamination, and transportation of materials.
Their search efforts located 4,160 bones and 180 other articles, according to Morse. None of the bones were determined to be human remains, however. That is, until the morning of Aug. 18, when officials say they discovered remains and evidence they believe belongs to Minnieweather.
“Many suns have came up and set since June the fifth, but it moves really slow if you’re Ja’Derrius’ mother, grandmother, and family,” said Mayor-President Sid Edwards on Tuesday. He shared that staff kept asking for “just one more week” to continue the search by hand, adding that even if they couldn’t continue the same type of search, they would have moved to heavy machinery—all to bring a “son of Baton Rouge home.”
“Someone told me the success rate of finding someone in a landfill is 12% or less nationally. They didn’t count Baton Rouge. They didn’t count these people up here in all their agencies from Baton Rouge,” Edwards said.
“Certainly, I would have loved for Ja’Derrius to be in an English class this week when school started. But the next best thing we could do for the family is to give them peace, and that was provided by these hardworking people.”
“This is unprecedented nationwide what we were able to accomplish,” Morse added.
He also asked for the public to continue to keep the Minnieweather family in their thoughts and prayers.
On Tuesday, before the DNA match was confirmed, Chief Morse said that groups would continue to search the landfill until there was confirmation that the remains and evidence discovered belong to the missing teen.
“We absolutely intend to send searchers back to the landfill tomorrow and the rest of this week to maintain our commitment. Our top focus is to continue to help bring closure to the Minnieweather family, and to find any evidence that’s likely to aid in prosecution,” Morse said.
District Attorney Hillar Moore praised the efforts of all those involved in the hands-on search process and said his team is ready to begin the task of working on behalf of Ja’Derrius Minnieweather’s family to deliver justice.
“They did it for a reason, and that reason was, every morning they saw the picture of Ja’Derrius, and they knew what their mission was and what they were doing this for. That mission has nearly concluded. They’re not finished, as they indicated. They will continue as best as they can to find all of the remains.”
Maurice Parms was arrested on June 20, charged with the first-degree murder of Ja’Derrius Minnieweather, despite not finding Ja’Derrius’ body at that time. Parms was denied bond on June 22. That was the second time he was arrested in 10 days, with the first arrest on charges of indecent behavior and online solicitation of a minor with a 16-year-old girl.
He is now facing additional sexual crime charges, including indecent behavior with a juvenile; second-degree rape; and trafficking of children for sexual purposes, which were all added on Aug. 14.
Parms is accused of a “violent attack” on Minnieweather that led to the teen’s murder on June 5, according to BRPD.
“As the district attorney, as the prosecutor, I would like to have as much evidence as possible. What I really want to impart to you is that now, at this stage, we, the district attorney’s office, have not only the duty but the pleasure and the honor now to speak for Ja’Derrius,” Moore said.
This remains an active investigation.
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