In 2006, a young Boston man named Miguel Oliveras disappeared while visiting a former girlfriend in Portland, Maine. Miguel had no ties to Maine and no other reason to be there. Miguel Oliveras’ mother believes her son was set up for murder.
“Nothing has changed. It’s just more frustration, more anger,” Myrna Gonzalez, Miguel’s mother recently said.
Myrna has been looking for Miguel since the last time she talked to him, only hours before he vanished.
“How hard is this time of year for you?” Boston 25 News Reporter Bob Ward asked.
“Really hard,” Myrna said. “September 3rd was the 18-year holiday, right around the corner. Yeah, it’s really hard.”
18 years ago, Miguel Oliveras lived in Boston, but he was last seen in Portland, Maine where he was visiting his on-again, off-again girlfriend, who was dancing at a strip club called Platinum Plus. On the night of September 3, 2006, Miguel was asked to leave the club. The moment was recorded on the club’s surveillance camera, which is the last known image of him.
“Once he’s escorted out on closed circuit TV. You see him kind of walk into the parking lot and then never seen again. Ever,” Portland, Maine Detective Lieutenant Nick Goodman said. Lt. Goodman is working Miguel’s case.
Recently, dive teams searched a quarry near Platinum Plus. Police have scoured woods in the area with cadaver dogs. They have contacted area hospitals.
They have found nothing.
“This one’s different. It’s essentially like he vanished after he walked out of that parking lot,” Lt Goodman said.
Eighteen years later, Myrna Gonzalez believes her son is still in Maine, a victim of foul play.
“As a mother, I feel it. Someone hurt him. He’s out there somewhere in Maine,” she said. Myrna Gonzales believes Miguel’s former girlfriend lured him to Maine. Myrna says the girlfriend didn’t just invite the reluctant Miguel to Portland, she paid for his Greyhound Bus ticket from Boston. After Miguel disappeared, Myrna’s sister-in-law told Myrna she talked to the girlfriend.
Now, a story has emerged about a Blackberry phone in Miguel’s possession that belonged to a Boston drug dealer.
“They told her, ‘We need the BlackBerry phone back.’ She did tell my sister-in-law because they got in touch with her,” Myrna said. “She [the girlfriend] said, ‘Well, I had to call the guy to come get the phone because another would have hurt me.’”
“You believe Miguel was lured up to Maine, desperate to get that BlackBerry phone, and he could have been killed over it?” Ward asked.
“Exactly,” Myrna said.
Miguel’s disappearance is still an open case in Portland, Maine. Investigators have had no luck talking to the former girlfriend, or anyone who came in contact with Miguel in Maine.
As for that BlackBerry phone...
“Is that somehow connected to this?” Ward asked Lt. Goodman.
“No, I can’t say yes or no on that. I think everything’s there’s no such thing as coincidence in police work. So we like to kind of piece it together as we go,” he said.
In Boston, Myrna Gonzalez continues to live her life, grieving for her son and desperate for answers.
“I just want to find him and bring him home. I need people to come forward,” Myrna said.
Bob Ward tried to reach Miguel’s former girlfriend, but did not get a response.
Call Portland, Maine Police if you have any information about Miguel Oliveras’ disappearance at (207) 874-8524 or (207) 874-8575.
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