Nashua Police Have No New Info On Michael McClain Case

NASHUA, NH — It has been two years since Michael McClain of Manchester disappeared during the early morning hours of April 21, 2019, from Nashua.

The case is still a missing person case and an open investigation. But police, according to Lt. Patrick Hannon of the Nashua Police Department, have ruled out some scenarios. Investigators do not suspect foul play or suspicious in nature.

"Given the entirety of our investigation," Hannon said, "we're comfortable with that. We're confident with the investigation we've done. It is not criminal in nature."

They also do not suspect McClain took his own life as there was no evidence, like a note, distress about debt, health, or anything else. Police, however, do continue to get leads which is why the cases is still open.

"You always leave that door open" with open cases where bodies are not recovered, Hannon said.

The presumption that the McClain case is not criminal in nature is based on surveillance video from a number of locations, including several gas stations, around the city. Police, in the days after he went missing, were able to create a timeline of his whereabouts after leaving a local nightclub, Tropical Lounge, and then, walking toward the Merrimack River. In nearly all the footage, McClain is alone. In one segment of footage, a car stops near McClain and, according to investigators, people he knew appeared to be in the car. They later left and he continued walking along East Hollis Street.

Early on in the case, a fight at the nightclub the night McClain went missing was presumed to be part of the incident but that has been ruled not related to the case.

Security footage shows McClain walking around the area of the Residences at Riverfront Landing apartment complex on Bancroft Street, walking out of a parking garage in the rear of the complex at around 3:30 a.m. on April 21, 2019. From there, investigators believe he fell into the Merrimack River, since he may have not known the area he was walking in.

On the night in question, another incident was occurring on the Hudson side of the river and witnesses reported hearing cries for help from the Nashua side. Personnel searched up and down the banks of the river for McClain while dive teams hit the water, too. They also got Massachusetts investigators involved. Their boat and dive teams search the river from the dam in Lowell north and came up empty.

One of the problems with the search for McClain at the time was the river had a very strong current and excess water due to snow melting from the north. Hannon, who heads up the dive team and regularly performs training, said the team uses "side-scan sonar" — a device similar to what sports fishermen use to find large fish in the ocean. The members train once a month, he said.

If McClain was lost to the river will they, someday, be able to find him? Maybe … but maybe not. There are a lot of factors.

"A lot depends on the current," Hannon said. "It can be a struggle. The temperature on the water, too. Bodies do sink to the ground (of the river) and come up. They can get caught on something. There are so many factors."

The lack of closure, of course, has made it all the more difficult for the family.

"They have been briefed," he said. "We wanted to be as transparent as possible. Not knowing where your loved one is … these are tough cases. It does make it difficult for the family not having closure."

Family members have told media outlets they do not believe McClain would just up and leave his life, lending credence to the investigators not thinking the case was a suicide.

Hannon said some of the tips have been "far-fetched" and "not in line with what we are seeing in the investigation" but they investigate every single one. Some of those theories concern possible connections to other missing person cases, including two women, April Bailey, who is in her late 30s and has been missing since January 2020, and Amanda Grazewski, who is in her mid-20s and has been missing since March 2020. Hannon, however, dismissed those and said the McClain case was not connected to any other cases in the city. At the same time, everything is being looked at.

Some amateur sleuths who knew McClain or who have mutual friends have been keeping his case alive, holding vigils and swapping notes online about the case. The family still maintains a website, Find Mike McClain, asking for anyone with information about the case to contact them as well as police.

Anyone with information about these cases should call Nashua police at 603-594-3500.

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