It’s been 20 years since a Boston man disappeared in Portland, Maine, and police have identified suspects
By Jim Keithley
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PORTLAND, Maine (WMTW) — The Portland Police Department says it is closer to solving a missing person case involving a Boston man who went missing from Maine’s largest city 20 years ago.
Miguel Oliveras is believed to be a murder victim, but his body has never been found.
Oliveras, who was 24 when he disappeared, was last seen leaving what was then the Platinum Plus Club at 200 Riverside St. at about 1 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2006. The Riverside Street venue is now known as Rick’s Cabaret.
Police now have grainy images that were captured by a security camera outside the strip club the night Oliveras went missing. The images show Oliveras leaving the club with another man, whom police believe is the only surviving suspect.
“We believe we have three persons of interest that were involved. Two of them are deceased. One is alive,” said Portland Police Lt. Nicholas Goodman.
The lone surviving suspect has hired a lawyer.
Myrna Gonzalez, Oliveras’ mother, traveled to Maine six months ago for an exclusive interview with Maine’s Total Coverage. During that interview, Gonzalez made a tearful plea for someone to come forward.
“Please speak up,” Gonzalez said. “Give my mind peace, so I can bring him home and give him a proper burial.”
Investigators have determined that Oliveras traveled to Portland 20 years ago to visit a woman who worked at the Platinum Plus Club. The woman reportedly sent Oliveras bus money and asked him to come.
Police said Oliveras was asked to leave the club at about 1 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2006, and he did so without incident.
According to police, they have identified and interviewed everybody who was at the club that night. Investigators believe Oliveras was killed and his body was dumped somewhere.
There have been a number of searches for Oliveras’ body over the years. Early on, dive teams searched the Rock Row Quarry in Westbrook, which is about a mile from the club.
Police said Oliveras was staying in the Old Orchard Beach area around the time of his disappearance. John Kerry, a Saco resident who lives in the Ross Road area near the Old Orchard Beach town line, said police paid him a visit as recently as 2025.
“A couple of detectives came up and said, ‘Can we walk your land, first of all? We’re looking, searching for a missing person, possibly a dead body. Possibly buried back here in the back of the barrens and down near the offside of the brook,'” Kerry recalled. “So we said, ‘Oh, sure.'”
Kerry owns 55 acres of land near the blueberry barrens off of Ross Road.
“I said to myself, ‘If you wanted to bury a body in the back of this blueberry barren near the brook, easily done and no one would ever see you,'” Kerry said.
Police would not confirm if they plan to search that area again, but said that future searches will include more advanced equipment, such as ground-penetrating radar and sonar.
“Finding a person that potentially could be buried or potentially could be hidden, or secreted in an area, is a long and tedious task. But we’ve been doing that now for half a year, and we think we’re getting closer by the day,” Goodman said.
Authorities are asking anyone with information about this case to call the Portland Police Department at 207-874-8575 or the FBI at 1-800-225-5324.
In March, the FBI increased the reward for information leading to Oliveras’ whereabouts to $25,000, which is more than double the $10,000 reward that was offered the year before.
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