A year has passed since Joseph Gauthier’s truck was found still running at the top of the Rainbow Bridge in what some believed was an apparent suicide.

Police initially believed Gauthier committed suicide. But whether or not, he is still considered missing.

“We believe Joseph Gauthier is missing and are trying to find him,” Port Arthur Police Sgt. Scott Gaspard said. “Do we believe it’s foul play? Until we have a body we won’t know.”

Gaspard said there are many questions left to be answered regarding Gauthier’s disappearance and police have interviewed people about the case.

Police have interviewed many people, he said, including some in jail.

Gauthier, 32, was last seen around 10:30 p.m. April 29, 2015. He had left home and told his wife he was going to take a ride, which was not uncommon. A few hours later she was notified by police that his truck was found, still running, at the top of the Rainbow Bridge. His shoes were also set out near the truck.

Law enforcement initially believed Gauthier had jumped from the bridge in an apparent suicide.

His wife, Carol Gauthier, not wanting to believe he was dead, first thought the scene was staged and he was missing. As time went on with no contact from him she began to believe he was deceased.

Texas Equusearch, a nonprofit search and rescue organization dedicated to searching for missing persons, came to the area several months after his disappearance but did not find Gauthier.

“I went back and forth on it. To be honest with you, I did not want to believe he was deceased,” Carol Gauthier said.

Police told her, she added, they believed Gauthier was deceased. “I now know he is because he wouldn’t go this long without speaking to his kid.”

Other family members of Gauthier hired a local private investigator to look into the case, Carol Gauthier said.

With the absence of a body and no chance to say final farewells, Carol Gauthier has arranged for a memorial service to be held from 6 to 8:45 p.m., Friday, April 29 at Melancon’s Funeral Home in Nederland.

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