Michele "Mimi" Oakes Gautreaux

Breaux Bridge, Louisiana - A Memorial service will be held at 10:00 am on Monday, December 5, 2022, at St Bernard Catholic Church, 204 N. Main St., Breaux Bridge, LA 70517, for Michele “Mimi” Oakes Gautreaux, age 26, on the 41st anniversary of her death. Fr. Garrett McIntyre will officiate at the Memorial service.

A gathering of family and friends will be held on Sunday, December 4, 2022, from 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm at Pellerin Funeral Home, 211 Berard St., Breaux Bridge, LA 70517.

Michele ‘Mimi’ Oakes formerly of Rangeley, Maine died on December 5, 1981, when struck by a car on Interstate 10 in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.  She had no identification at the time and was listed as Unknown Female, until recently confirmed by DNA testing on July 18, 2022.

Michele was born in Farmington, Maine on October 27, 1955, the daughter of Frank and Ella (Quimby) Oakes. She grew up in Rangeley, Maine and Dresden, Maine. She moved to the Lockport area in Louisiana in 1975 with friends where she lived until her death.

March 9, 1982, after several months of numerous attempts and being unable to identify Michele or notify her next of kin; services, casket, and tomb and headstone were donated by Pellerin Funeral Home, Pellerin Marble and Granite Co., and a plot in St Bernard Cemetery #2 by St Bernard Catholic Church. 

A graveside service was held on March 9, 1982. Lester Guidry and Sophie Cormier stood in as Father and Mother. Services were conducted by The Reverend Whitney LeBlanc.

Her case was revived again and again in multiple local news articles over the years.

In 2006 Michele’s remains were brought to Louisiana State University Repository for Unidentified and Missing Persons to work her case and extract DNA, under the direction of Mary H. Manhein, founding director of Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services (FACES) Laboratory at L.S.U. in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

After learning of the case, via social media (Facebook), in January 2022, her daughter Angie, responded.  DNA samples from family members were taken on February 14th, and findings were confirmed on July 18, 2022, that the Unknown Female really was Michele Oakes.

Michele is survived by her daughter, Angie Jordan (Jeff Philbrook) of Burlington, Kentucky, formerly of Dresden, Maine; grandchildren, Trevor Shorette, Jordan Grady, and Devan Grady; great grandchildren, Brycelyn Shorette and Banks Shorette; brother, Montford Oakes (Frances) of Virginia Beach, VA; and her sisters, Marcia Leask (Merle) of Dresden, Maine and Jamie Milligan (Mickey) of Augusta, Maine.

She is preceded in death by her daughter, Marlene Gautreaux; parents, Frank and Ella Oakes; half-sister, Joyce Lee Quimby; grandparents, Erlon and Ethel (Nile) Quimby and Montford and Angie (Harnett) Oakes; her guardians, James and Montress (Oakes) Milligan; and her uncle and aunt, Arthur & Evelyn (Ross) Oakes.

All surviving family, friends, and those people involved in her services and care are extremely happy she has been identified and closure has been given to ALL.  Our Heartfelt Thanks and Greatest Appreciation go out to the following people known and unknown:

To the loving and caring people of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana who adopted a total stranger, “Unknown Female”, as one of their own, providing flowers, prayers and caring for her gravesite over that last 40+ years; Ray Pellerin, Pellerin Funeral Home in Breaux Bridge, who would not allow Michele to be labeled and disposed of as a Jane Doe but gave her the name “Unknown Female”.  His personal thoughtful generosity would preserve her body so she could be finally identified and provide closure to all of her family and friends.

Major Ginny Higgins, St. Martin Parish Sheriff's Office, a 22-year veteran, who takes immense pride in her Public Affairs Office work, helping Missing and Unknown victim families to gain closure, by working long hours and solving Cold Cases that are decades old!

Ms. Maria Allaire, Louisiana Repository for Unidentified and Missing Persons, LSU FACES Laboratory; who takes her work very personally by taking DNA samples from exhumed bodies and getting much more involved than she needs to, so families can gain full closure of a missing or deceased loved one, Louisiana State Police Crime Laboratory, University of North Texas Health Science Center for Human Identification and analyzation and comparison, Sargent Chris A. Tremblay, Maine State Police, who has the dubious honor of notifying Maine family members of a loved one's status and then requesting DNA samples for positive identification!

Cards and letters of appreciation in Michele’s name may be sent to: Ray Pellerin, c/o Pellerin Funeral Home, 232 Courthouse St., Breaux Bridge, LA 70517 and/or to St. Bernard Catholic Church, 204 North Main St., Breaux Bridge, LA 70517, for taking a totally unknown stranger, Michele, into their caring hands and giving her a peaceful place to rest.

Pellerin Funeral Home, 211 Berard St., Breaux Bridge, LA 70517 (337-332-2111) is in charge of arrangements