An autopsy of the “skeletonized” body of a 17-year-old who was missing along with the family’s Chevrolet Suburban more than three years ago did not establish a cause of death, an official with the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Office said Friday.
A criminal investigation into the death of former Woodlawn High School student Dustin “Dusty” Bambarger is continuing, prosecutor Stephen Pugh said. But the two men who were arrested on counts of first-degree murder shortly after Bambarger’s badly decomposed body was found in December 2004 have been released from custody.
On Thursday, Pugh took the Bambarger case to an East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury. The grand jury took no action — or pretermitted. Because no action was taken, the grand jury can reconsider the matter if and when more evidence is presented.
Pugh said there is no time limit on the criminal investigation because the case involves a possible homicide.
Terry Dewayne Montgomery, 23, 9262 Scenic Highway, and Derrick Lamont Gaines, 29, 2835 Gore Road, both of Baton Rouge, were both booked on a count of first-degree murder in Bambarger’s death, but neither has been indicted.
Because first-degree murder carries a sentence of life in prison or death by lethal injection, a grand jury indictment must be returned before the case can go to trial.
An East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office arrest warrant says Bambarger appeared to have been killed by people who wanted the Suburban. Bambarger’s body was found on an overgrown lot on Ford Street in north Baton Rouge.
The Coroner’s Office official said Friday the cause of death remains a mystery.
“The bottom line is the autopsy was unable to determine a cause of death because the remains were skeletonized,” said Don Moreau, chief of operations for the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Office.
Moreau explained that during autopsies, searches are made for “gross physical changes,” such as bullet holes through bones, skull fractures, chipped ribs and trauma to vertebrae.
Moreau said the fact that no such wounds were discovered does not rule out foul play because there could have been injuries to vital organs that decomposed before the body was found.
Bambarger left his parents home in the vehicle Nov. 9, 2004, saying he was going to a friend’s house to watch a movie.
An arrest warrant for Gaines says police suspect Bambarger was killed by two people who were riding with him in the Suburban on Nov. 13, 2004. The warrant says Bambarger was seated in the front passenger seat of the vehicle when he was hit in the head with a gun and later killed.
The next morning, Montgomery was driving the Suburban and offered to rent it to another man for cash or crack cocaine, the warrant says. The vehicle was found days later, covered with motor oil at the Nottingham Apartments on Florida Boulevard, the warrant says.
Slightly less than a year after Bambarger’s body was found in the overgrown lot, the teen’s parents filed a lawsuit against OnStar Corp., and claimed they were ignored when they asked the company to track the vehicle and possibly save their son’s life.
Stephen Bab****, an attorney for the parents, said in February 2007 the lawsuit was dismissed, but said there was a confidentiality agreement that prohibits any comments about the “settlement or dismissal” of the suit.
Attempts by The Advocate to contact Bambarger’s parents were not successful Friday afternoon.

Source: The Advocate