Ja’Derrius Minnieweather’s remains were recovered after crews spent weeks searching thousands of tons of landfill material in a homicide investigation.

BATON ROUGE, La. — DNA testing has confirmed that human remains recovered from the East Baton Rouge Parish North Landfill belong to 15-year-old Ja’Derrius Minnieweather, ending a weeks-long effort to find the teenager after police accused a 51-year-old man of killing him and disposing of his body.

The East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Office announced the identification Aug. 19, one day after search crews recovered remains from the landfill. The office said the identification was made through DNA comparison with assistance from the LSU FACES Laboratory and the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab. The finding gave investigators physical confirmation after police had spent nearly two months building a homicide case without having recovered Minnieweather’s remains. The coroner said at the time that the cause of death remained pending.

The recovery came after an unusually large search operation that began July 13. Baton Rouge police, FBI personnel and other agencies focused on a section of a roughly 400-acre landfill after investigators developed evidence that Minnieweather’s body had likely entered the waste stream. Officials narrowed the active search to an area of less than an acre, but the amount of material there was still enormous. By mid-August, crews had processed thousands of tons of landfill waste while working in extreme heat and around broken glass, discarded needles, fumes and other hazards.

Police Chief T.J. Morse said when the search started that investigators believed a garbage collection route had carried the teenager’s remains to the landfill after his death. That conclusion transformed the case from a broad search across neighborhoods, wooded areas and waterways into a carefully planned excavation. The FBI helped establish search procedures, and personnel wore protective equipment while heavy machinery moved material for hand inspection. Authorities said the work had to be done slowly enough to protect both the search teams and any evidence that might later be used in court.

Minnieweather had first been reported missing June 6 after he was last seen around 2 a.m. June 5 in Baton Rouge. Early in the case, police appealed publicly for information while his relatives and community volunteers searched for him. His grandmother told local reporters that the teenager was close to his family and that going days without hearing from him was unusual. Minnieweather was an Istrouma High School student and had recently begun participating in a city summer work program, according to local reports published during the search.

The investigation changed sharply on June 20, when Baton Rouge police announced that they believed Minnieweather had been killed and arrested Maurice Parms, then 51, on a count of first-degree murder. According to an arrest warrant described by local news organizations, Minnieweather had gone to visit a 16-year-old longtime friend before he disappeared. Police alleged that a confrontation developed between Minnieweather and Parms over Parms’ behavior toward the girl. The accusations against Parms remain allegations, and the murder charge has not been proven at trial.

Investigators wrote that witnesses described seeing a tall man striking a smaller person for several minutes. One account cited in the warrant included a quieter voice pleading for the assault to stop. Police later found what they described as significant bloodstaining in the area. Investigators also said surveillance footage showed a person matching Parms’ build riding a child’s bicycle, discarding items and later returning to retrieve them. Additional video allegedly showed Parms wiping parts of his truck, and police said testing indicated blood was present in the vehicle.

The warrant laid out the prosecution’s theory that Parms concealed Minnieweather’s body, discarded evidence and later returned to move items from the area. Investigators eventually concluded that the teenager’s remains had been placed in a garbage container and were later collected with ordinary trash, sending them to the parish landfill. That theory led authorities to examine garbage routes and disposal records to identify the portion of the landfill most likely to contain material collected from the area where police believed the body had been left.

Parms had already come under police scrutiny before the murder arrest. On June 10, while detectives were investigating Minnieweather’s disappearance, officers arrested him on allegations involving a 16-year-old girl. Police said they had found evidence of what they described as an inappropriate relationship. Authorities initially accused Parms of indecent behavior with a juvenile and computer-aided solicitation of a minor. Additional counts filed in August included second-degree rape, trafficking of children for sexual purposes and indecent behavior with a juvenile. Those charges also remain allegations unless proven in court.

The landfill operation grew out of weeks of searches elsewhere. Before investigators focused on the disposal site, police, volunteers, K-9 teams and the United Cajun Navy searched large stretches of Baton Rouge and surrounding areas. Teams checked woods, areas near bridges and other locations as investigators followed leads. By late June, city officials said evidence had increasingly pointed to the landfill. Mayor-President Sid Edwards publicly warned that the recovery effort could take weeks and said the FBI had agreed to send specialized personnel to help local agencies conduct the search.

The scale of that operation became clearer after work began. More than 70 Baton Rouge police personnel and FBI agents were involved at the outset, according to local reporting. Searchers faced heat and rain while excavating a carefully selected section of the landfill. Investigators also had to distinguish potential evidence from the huge quantity of unrelated material moving through the site. By the time remains were located Aug. 18, authorities said crews had spent roughly six weeks working through thousands of tons of waste. Clothing found with the remains matched what Minnieweather was reported to have been wearing when he disappeared, giving police an early indication of the identity before DNA testing was completed.

The confirmation brought one part of the investigation to an end but did not resolve the criminal case. Recovering Minnieweather’s remains gave the coroner an opportunity to conduct further examination and gave homicide investigators evidence that had been unavailable when Parms was arrested. The exact medical findings had not been publicly released in the sources reviewed for this report. Police had earlier said their evidence indicated Minnieweather was beaten to death, but that allegation came from the criminal investigation rather than a publicly announced final determination from the coroner.

The case has also remained visible in Minnieweather’s school community. On Sept. 26, students, relatives and friends took part in an Istrouma Magnet High School homecoming parade tribute honoring Minnieweather and another student who died in 2026. The event came more than a month after Minnieweather’s remains were identified and reflected how a missing-person investigation that began with neighborhood flyers and appeals for help had become a major homicide case involving local police, federal agents, forensic specialists and weeks of recovery work.

The recovery settled one of the investigation’s longest-running uncertainties by establishing where Minnieweather’s remains were and confirming his identity through DNA. It did not settle how the homicide case will ultimately be resolved. The coroner had not publicly announced a final cause of death in the reporting reviewed for this story, and Parms remains charged with first-degree murder as the case moves through court.

Author note: Last updated September 28, 2026.