Skeleton found in well nearly four decades ago identified as missing Louisiana man

SABINE PARISH, La. (KSLA) — A missing Louisiana man’s family is getting some degree of closure after he disappeared almost four decades ago.

They were notified Tuesday, Oct. 19 that skeletal remains that a Sabine Parish landowner found in a well in April 1986 are Lester Rome’s, the Sabine Parish Sheriff’s Office reports.

The Grand Isle resident was 58 years old when his disappearance was reported to Jefferson Parish authorities in 1984.

Investigators could not make positively identify Rome’s remains when they were discovered 2.5 years later.

Personnel at the LSU Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services (FACES) Laboratory in Baton Rouge did make a possible connection between Rome and the remains in October 2013.

“The skeletal remains had shotgun pellets embedded in the pelvic area. Rome had been shot in the abdomen area with a shotgun some years prior to when he went missing,” the Sheriff’s Office recounted in a Facebook post-Tuesday afternoon.

Fast forward to this year.

Sheriff’s detectives got the current landowner’s permission in February to use “mechanical means” to try to recover more of the skeletal remains from the well. That attempt was unsuccessful.

But in April, more skeletal remains and other pieces of evidence were recovered from the well with the help of the Central Sabine Fire Department’s confined space entry team.

Sabine Parish Coroner Mark Holder issued a death certificate Tuesday stating that the skeletal remains recovered from the well are Rome’s.

Detectives still are searching for more information that may lead to whoever is responsible for Rome’s death.

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