Monterey — A year removed from the disappearance and homicide of Monterey’s Duell Moreland, his family still looks for answers.

Moreland’s family hosted a candlelight vigil this week to keep his memory alive. While Moreland’s mother Kim Murrell said having the community together helped, she wishes more would be done to get an alleged murderer and others who could have been involved out of the community.

“He lives right down the road,” Murrell said. “Less than a mile away.”

Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy David Hedrick said the investigation is active.

“Of course we are continuously working on the case,” Hedrick said. “The only thing that is new is we have sent new physical evidence to the crime lab to be checked for DNA.”

Hedrick said to protect the investigation he could not say what the evidence was or when it was collected.

Moreland went missing on March 29, 2016, and his body was found in a bayou off Peale Cross Road in Monterey on April 29, 2016.

In June, Hartwell Layne Tiffee was charged with second-degree murder but released after a grand jury delivered a no true bill in October.

Due to Tiffee’s father, Red Tiffee, being a police juror, District Attorney Brad Burget was recused and the Louisiana Attorney General’s office prosecuted the case.

Seventh Judicial District Judges Kathy Johnson and John Reeves recused themselves because the judges’ offices receive funding from the police jury.

Moreland’s body, mostly skeletal, was found by his grandfather, Buddy Tiffee.

Buddy Tiffee said Sheriff Kenneth Hedrick had visited the family for the first time since the disappearance a month earlier on that day.

Buddy Tiffee said a woman, claiming her friend told her, came to deliver a tip to where the family could find Moreland, who was 26.

Buddy Tiffee said the sheriff cautioned him that it could just be a rumor, but Buddy Tiffee said he was going to look for his grandson.

Buddy Tiffee said he had to get a friend to find a boat to access the area where the tipster said the body was located and he found his grandson’s remains in an old campsite.

“Something told me to just go look,” he said. “We first saw some of Duell’s clothes that had been burned.

“There were bones scattered everywhere — I know a bear or coyotes got to him,” Buddy Tiffee said, his voice starting to crack. “And the law wants to be mad at us. They only came out and looked twice.”

Buddy Tiffee said since that time he’s been trying to go day by day, but it’s difficult.

“Mom and dad died, and that was bad,” Buddy Tiffee said. “But this that happened to my grandson, I had no idea what it could be like.

“He has lived with us since he was 2. He used to follow behind me every step. Every time I turn around, I see something that reminds me of Duell.”

Buddy Tiffee has been critical of the sheriff’s office investigation, as have other members of the family.

Moreland’s step-father Steve Murrell said the sheriff’s office has been absent.

“A phone call goes a long way,” Murrell said. “Would it hurt to call his parents once a month to update and say, ‘Y’all don’t give up and we will never stop looking.’”

Both Steve Murrell and Moreland’s father, Stephen Moreland, said they understood the investigation would take a while.

“I knew it would be slow,” Steve Murrell said. “But it’s been a year.”

Stephen Moreland said he thinks the sheriff’s office should ask for more outside help, like the FBI, which has a larger budget and more experience with murder investigations.

“This should not be an ego thing,” Moreland said. “The community needs answers.”

Hedrick said the family of Duell Moreland has not been forgotten.

“We live in the parish and we are not going anywhere,” Hedrick said. “We are going to keep working this case until it is resolved. The people of the parish and the family deserve that.”

Hedrick said the case that was presented to the attorney general’s office is still the basis of the case, but that the sheriff’s office does not have tunnel vision.

“We were not there when it happened — there could be something else in play,” Hedrick said. “We are keeping the scope open to the possibility that there could be someone else involved and not limit it to one person.”

The family has been through much pain this year, Hedrick said.

“I just ask the people of the tri-parish area to please keep this family in their prayers,” Hedrick said. “These are good people. Keep them in your prayers.”

Kim Murrell said March brought much of the pain back, but she knew going in it would be a tough month. The month is bookended by his birthday on March 1 and his disappearance on March 29.

“I was the last one to talk to him,” Kim Murrell said. “He was washing clothes and said he wasn’t going anywhere because he was riding with me to the doctor the next morning.

“I didn’t get to say good bye or I love you. And then for three long months I couldn’t even bury him.”