Man Goes Missing After AA Meeting

A.J. Breaux was a 50-year-old from Houma, Louisiana, who had been working at Earl Williams Clothing Store for over three decades. He’d been divorced for seventeen years and had three daughters.

After being arrested for drunk driving, A.J. worked on getting sober. He joined the local Easy Does It Club, a support group for recovering alcoholics. He attended meetings most evenings and was proud to be there for fellow recovering addicts whenever they needed.

A.J. had been sober for eight years.

Around 8:30 PM, after attending a meeting with the support group on August 28, 1991, A.J. went to a convenience store to buy a carton of milk. He told the cashier he was going home, where he lived with one of his daughters. He never arrived home that night and his daughter reported him missing in the morning.

Two days later, his car was found near the Easy Does It Club. Inside was his wallet, personal checkbook and the support group’s checkbook (he was the secretary), and a brown bag with $165 of the club’s funds.

Interestingly, the vehicle was low on fuel even though A.J. had bought $10 worth of gasoline hours before he went missing. The car showed no signs of foul play. The carton of milk he had bought and his keys were missing.

Two weeks after he vanished, the police received a letter, signed “Helene”:

“A.J. Breaux. He was drunk at the time. Self-inflicted gunshot wound. Stomach. Drawstring cotton sack. Put in by friend. Rolled over steep grassy Bayou bank. Near dam.”

Authorities searched the mentioned lake but found no evidence of A.J. They have since said it was most likely a prank letter.

Kenneth Pellegrin, an acquaintance, believes he saw A.J. on August 30, two days after he vanished. Pellegrin says A.J. was outside of a convenience store using a payphone.

He noticed that he was not well-dressed as he usually was. A.J. was wearing a lumberjack-type shirt, loose fitting pants, and old tennis shoes. He seemed nervous and had been staring at three men sitting in a red compact car parked in front of him.

When Pellegrin returned, A.J. and the car were gone. Pellegrin was not aware that A.J. had been reported missing when he saw him.

Another acquaintance, who was also not aware of his disappearance, saw A.J. with three men in a red compact car about eight miles out of town. They waved at A.J. but he did not wave back, which they thought was unusual.

On September 28, Kristy Boudreaux was sitting on the front porch of her house in Lockport, Louisiana, and noticed that a van had passed by her house a couple of times. She thought they were lost until one of the men exited the van with a bag and approached her.

The man, who she thought was homeless, asked if she wanted to buy some frozen fish. She responded that she didn’t and noticed a strong smell of alcohol coming from the man. She then realized that she had seen a picture of the man on a missing persons flyer at the post office — she believes it was A.J. who approached her.

A fourth witness, a maintenance worker, claimed to have seen three men force a fourth man into a white car at Jim Bowie Park — the same park where A.J.’s car was found. However, they could not positively identify the man as A.J.

Authorities believe it is possible that A.J. may have relapsed, possibly blacking out and suffering memory loss. However, his family does not believe he would have touched alcohol again or leave on his own accord. They think it's possible he was kidnapped or hurt after seeing or finding out about something he shouldn’t have.

In recent years, A.J.’s daughters revealed that they discovered their father was gay. He had kept it a secret because he was scared it would affect business at the clothing store he worked at. It is unknown if his sexual orientation is related to his vanishing.

A.J. was declared legally dead in 1998. If alive, he is now 78-years-old.