Police have identified a set of human remains found in Ellsworth last week as those of a 43-year-old man who disappeared more than a year ago.
Anson Snowdeal Photo courtesy Maine State Police
Anson Snowdeal of Sullivan was last seen leaving his mother’s apartment on Feb. 8, 2022, according to family and Maine State Police. His body was identified by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner this week.
Commercial land surveyors discovered the remains in the woods off Red Bridge Road in Ellsworth on Nov. 14 and notified authorities, according to state police spokesperson Shannon Moss.
Law enforcement officers and family had been searching for Snowdeal since Feb. 9, 2022. He had left the apartment on Water Street without his phone, according to the Ellsworth American.
Snowdeal’s widow, Jessica Chadwick Snowdeal, said that their family was notified Tuesday morning that he had been identified.
His family and friends had been searching for him for more than a year. This isn’t the news they wanted, his wife said, but it offers some closure and they can finally lay him to rest.
In a Facebook group established to help find Snowdeal, members were sharing articles about his death Tuesday morning. It was a devastating outcome for the more than 3,600 friends, family and strangers who had been following the search since the group was created shortly after his disappearance.
Members were frequently asking for updates and sharing plans with each other for search groups around the Hancock County area.
They posted missing persons flyers that asked anyone with information to call police and Snowdeal’s family. There was a $1,000 award for anyone who could find him, according to the group’s about section.
‘HE STRUGGLED IN THE END’
The couple had known each other for 20 years and had been together for 18, Jessica Snowdeal said. They have two sons together and also cared for his older son from a previous marriage. He also had a twin brother who lived in the area.
Family was important to her husband and he kept them close, she said. He was a hands-on guy who appreciated building things – for fun and for work. He wore his heart on his sleeve, loved having fun and was generous to friends and loved ones.
Jessica Snowdeal said this is how she wants people to remember him, not for his substance use disorder.
“He struggled in the end, and that part is, it’s a chapter. It’s not who he was as a partner,” she said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon.
She said her husband had tried getting help in a rehabilitation facility. But he was drinking again shortly before he left. She said she believed at the time that his disappearance was related to his drinking.
At first, she was hopeful they would find him. Shortly after he disappeared, she got an Apple Tag alert for his wallet on a road nearby. Friends and family organized a search party along with a police officer assigned to his case.
But they never found him or the wallet. His wife said it was one of the belongings they recovered with his remains. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner did not respond to an email Tuesday evening asking to confirm that they had found his wallet.
THE SEARCH
Ellsworth City Manager and Police Chief Glenn Moshier told the Ellsworth American last April that Snowdeal was facing a class B theft charge and a class D home repair fraud charge for an incident in 2021 and that he knew he was under investigation when he disappeared.
“Before he went missing our department had been in contact with Mr. Snowdeal and we were attempting to get the matter resolved. We certainly hope that this pending matter will not impede the safe return of Mr. Snowdeal,” Moshier told the newspaper at the time.
District Attorney Robert Granger confirmed that the charges were still active when Snowdeal died. Jessica Snowdeal said local police told her they thought a warrant might persuade her husband to come forward.
State police created a national missing person’s file for Snowdeal on Feb. 17 after he was reported missing, Moss said. The file had been active until Tuesday, along with an internal alert to law enforcement agencies statewide on Feb. 9.
The Maine Warden Service searched various wooded areas and state police pursued several tips, Moss said.
Lindsey Chasteen, a spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, said earlier on Tuesday the cause and manner of Snowdeal’s death will remain “undetermined” because of the state of his remains, which she described as “skeletonized.”
Chasteen said the office doesn’t know when Snowdeal died or if he died where he was found. She said some of the clothing he was wearing when he disappeared – tan pants, a gray shirt and sweater, and a black jacket – was found with his body.
Police have said they don’t believe his death was the result of criminal conduct. Moss said it appeared Snowdeal had disappeared voluntarily and was avoiding being found.
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