Houma, Louisiana in August can be smothering at times, with the humidity and steady summer heat combining to oppress even the hardiest of locals.
But on a late August night in 1991, the steamy and sweltering Louisiana landscape swallowed up a fifty-year-old clothing salesman and recovering alcoholic who has never been heard or seen from since that day.
Fifty-year-old Adam John (A.J.) Breaux vanished on August 28, 1991 from in front of a recovery group club known as the "Easy Does It Club", a chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous located on Munson Drive in Houma.
Breaux been sober for eight years. He was very involved in the "Easy Does It Club" as the secretary/treasurer, and on August 28 he left there at around 8:30 pm. About a half hour later, he bought a quart of milk at a local convenience store, but was never seen again afterwards.
Breaux's silver four-door 1988 Ford Tempo was found locked and abandoned two days later, parked across the street from where he was last seen.
His wallet was inside the vehicle, as was his personal checkbook and the checkbook for the Alcoholics Anonymous chapter, and a brown bag containing $165 in Alcoholics Anonymous funds.
The vehicle was low on fuel, although Breaux had purchased $10 worth of gasoline just hours before he vanished. The car keys were missing, as was the carton of milk Breaux had just bought, and neither of these items were ever found.
Breaux was employed as a salesman at Earl Williams Clothing Store at the time of his disappearance; he had worked there for over thirty years. He battled an alcohol problem for many years and had one prior drunk driving arrest, but he stopped drinking eight years prior to his disappearance. If he started drinking again, he could have developed memory loss.
Breaux had been divorced for seventeen years prior to his disappearance, but he had a good relationship with his ex-wife and two daughters.
Shortly after his disappearance, witnesses came forward claiming to have seen Breaux. One of them, an acquaintance named Kenneth Pellegrin, claimed that he saw him on August 30, outside of a convenience store on a pay phone.
He said that he was wearing a lumberjack-type shirt and appeared disheveled. A red compact car was parked in front with three men inside. It appeared that he was being watched by them. They all soon left.
Another witness who knew Breaux also claimed to have seen him with three men in a compact car about eight miles out of town. The witness waved to him but he did not wave back, which was apparently uncharacteristic of him.
Neither of the witnesses knew that he was missing at the time. Two weeks after he vanished, a note was sent to the police that claimed he had accidentally shot himself while drinking and that his body had been tossed into a lake. That lake was searched but no trace of him was found.
On September 28, a woman named Kristy Boudreaux, who lived 30 miles from Houma, claimed that a man matching Breaux's description visited her on her front porch, trying to sell her frozen fish.
She said that he appeared disheveled and his breath smelled of alcohol. She later identified A.J. as the man who had approached her on the porch. Authorities believe that he may have relapsed and began drinking again, although his family is convinced that he was abducted.
A fourth witness later came forward claiming to have seen three men force a fourth one into a car and drive away. The witness could not positively the man as Breaux, however.
Breaux was a Caucasian male with brown hair and brown eyes. He had a birthmark on his knee and a scar on his left eyebrow. He sometimes wore glasses with square-shaped gold frames.
Breaux was declared legally dead in 1998.
Anyone with information on this case is asked to call the Houma Police Department 985-873-6371.
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