William “Bill” Parent was a 67-year-old Clinton, Maine, man whose disappearance began as a welfare concern in late June 2025 and gradually became a much more serious investigation. Maine State Police said he lived on Main Street in Clinton and was last seen on June 16, 2025, then last heard from on June 20, 2025. Authorities described him as a white male, about 5 feet 8 inches tall and roughly 148 pounds, bald, with blue eyes, and they publicly stated that law enforcement was concerned for
his safety and well-being. The Clinton Police Department and Maine State Police asked anyone with information to contact investigators, signaling early that the search depended heavily on public tips and community awareness.
As the search unfolded, additional reporting described the worry that set in after Parent could not be reached. A family member found his front door open after several days without contact, and attempts to reach him were unsuccessful. Investigators also had information suggesting that a signal from his cellphone may have placed him in the Washington area of Knox County after he disappeared, though his whereabouts remained unknown. Reports described him as having a thin build, gray hair with significant baldness, eyeglasses, and a distinctive scar under his right eye; his clothing at the time he vanished was not known. Those details mattered because they were the public-facing clues people could use while police followed leads and tried to determine whether he had left on his own, become lost, or met with harm.
For Parent’s family, the weeks and months after June were marked by uncertainty and grief. His niece, Darcy Williams, later told reporters that she and Parent had been close and that she regularly helped him get to doctors’ appointments, grocery shopping, and other places. She described him with warmth, remembering a sweet and kind man with a sense of humor who loved Elvis Presley and would sing in stores or call her on her birthday to sing an Elvis song. She also said he had two sons, had lived in a trailer on Main Street for about 20 years, and had struggled after the death of his live-in girlfriend about two years before he disappeared. Those personal details gave the public a fuller picture of Bill Parent beyond a missing-person notice: he was a loved uncle, father, neighbor, and familiar presence whose sudden absence was deeply painful to the people who knew him.
On October 7, 2025, the investigation took a tragic turn. Maine State Police, while assisting Clinton Police with a missing-person investigation, discovered human remains in a field off Route 100 in Clinton at about 11:30 a.m. The remains were transported to the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta for identification and for determination of the cause and manner of death. At the time, officials said the investigation was ongoing and did not immediately release additional information. Parent’s family was still waiting for formal confirmation, but the location of the discovery made the moment especially painful, because the remains were found near the same Main Street area tied to his life and disappearance.
The case was later no longer an active missing-person case: the attached case data indicates Parent’s case resolution status as Deceased, and the exact date he was located or formally identified is not clear from the available case data. In May 2026, nearly a year after Parent’s family reported him missing, authorities announced an arrest connected to his death. James Simonson, 66, of Clinton, was taken into custody by the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit-Central and charged with murder, as well as possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, in connection with a shooting that investigators said occurred in late June 2025 on Main Street in Clinton. Police said Parent died from the injuries he sustained, and reporting stated that the cause of death was gunshot wounds and the manner of death was homicide. In overview, William Parent’s case began with a troubling silence after his last contact in June 2025, moved through a months-long search by family and law enforcement, shifted after remains were found in Clinton that October, and ultimately became a homicide case with an arrest announced in May 2026, leaving behind the memory of a man whose family described him as kindhearted, musical, and deeply missed.Last Seen: Jun 20, 2025
