Caribou police are seeking the public’s help in locating the Rev. Clement Thibodeau, 85, of Caribou, according to information posted Wednesday on the department’s Facebook page.
Thibodeau, a retired Catholic priest, was last seen in Caribou on Saturday, the post said. He drives a grey 2013 Chevrolet Equinox.
The priest served at St. Mary Catholic Church in Bangor in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Thibodeau was pastor of the church in 1993 when the parish center was completed.
He also played a minor role in the trial of Mark A. Bechard who brutally attacked four nuns, killing two of them, in their Waterville chapel during a psychotic episode in 1996. Bechard, who was found not criminally responsible for his crimes, died earlier this month at the age of 58 of complications related to ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, according to new reports.
Thibodeau testified, that in January 1991, Bechard walked barefoot from Waterville to Bangor to bring the priest a message of “repentance” that he said God was telling him to share, according to Bangor Daily News archives.
The priest also raised money for Guest House, a center in Michigan that treats clergy for substance abuse. Thibodeau said in 2000 that in 1980, his bishop ordered him to undergo treatment for alcoholism there.
Over the years, Thibodeau also served as pastor at St. Mary’s in Eagle Lake, Notre Dame in Waterville, St. Mary’s in Bangor and St. Joseph’s in Gardiner. He attended Caribou High School, St. Francis College in Biddeford and the Grand Seminary at the University of Montreal.
He spent 17 years as a teacher at St. Ignatius High School in Sanford and taught religious studies at Nason College in Springvale. In 2001, he retired to the farm in Connor, near Caribou, where he grew up.
Any one with information about Thibodeau’s whereabouts, is asked to contact the Caribou police at 493-3301.
