John LaBrie has trouble sleeping at night knowing the person who killed his brother is still out there.

"I continue living my life, but there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about it," he said.

Coyote hunters found the body of his brother, Michael LaBrie, nearly a year ago on a remote road near Powder River. He had been shot multiple times.

The bitter Wyoming winter had frozen LaBrie's body, so when investigators reached it on Dec. 29, 2006, they were unable to determine how long it had been there. The divorced father of three had last been seen 11 days earlier in Casper.

After the discovery, investigators retraced LaBrie's movements up to noon on Dec. 18, where he was seen inside his Winnebago motor home at the Fort Caspar Campground. One person reported seeing LaBrie the same evening at the Bayou Bar in Mills, but regular patrons and the bartender couldn't confirm he was there.

From there, his trail grows cold.

"He just flat disappeared on the 18th," said Natrona County Sheriff's Sgt. Mark Sellers.

Now a year later, the killing remains unsolved.

"We continued for awhile to receive tips or information that we followed up on, but nothing ever developed out of it concrete, to give us any real good leads to go with," Sellers said.

Wyoming move

Michael LaBrie moved to Wyoming a year and a half before his death. Like many men do, he came to the Cowboy State to work in the energy industry.

The summer before his death, he spent time working in the Lysite area, just inside Fremont County, Sellers said.

At some point, LaBrie - a U.S. Army veteran - went to the VA Medical Center in Sheridan. He was supposed to receive treatment for his alcohol problem beginning Nov. 17, 2006, according to a letter sent to a municipal court judge.

LaBrie, who died at the age of 48, had four brushes with Casper police. Three of those occasions involved alcohol-related offenses. John LaBrie said his brother might have liked to party and drink alcohol, but that didn't make him a bad person.

"As far as I know, he never did anybody wrong," John LaBrie said.

Michael LaBrie remained in Sheridan until early December 2006 before returning to Casper, where he stayed for about 10 days before his disappearance.

Although he was last seen on Dec. 18, it wasn't until the morning of Dec. 29 that a friend filed a missing person's report.

His body was discovered about six hours later. He had been shot repeatedly, although investigators haven't released exactly how many times or with what type of ammunition.

Remote crime scene

Out-of-state hunters found LaBrie on an unpaved road in a remote stretch of prairie and sagebrush about a mile from the town of Powder River.

"Mainly hunters go back there," said Everett Holcomb, a Powder River resident who can see from his home the area where LaBrie's body was discovered.

The road, just west of the river that shares the town's name, is part of the Old Yellowstone Highway. Depending on the season, it's rarely traveled, Holcomb said.

"It could be a week," he explained. "It could be a month, really."

Holcomb never met LaBrie and has no idea why anyone would want to kill him.

"There is a lot of speculation," Holcomb said. "Who knows? Like I say, he wasn't well known in town."

Sellers believes whoever shot LaBrie likely did so at the spot where he was found, given the fact he was shot multiple times. The remote location, along with the condition of LaBrie's body, means investigators can't determine for sure when the killing took place.

"We don't have any activity, or anybody can say they've been up or down that road in between that time to say he (LaBrie) wasn't out there," Sellers said. "So there's a possibility he was out there from the 18th."

Gone, but not forgotten

John LaBrie suspects his brother was killed before Christmas because Michael would always call for the holiday. The two were close, even though John lives in Southern California.

"My brother was the kindest person," he said. "He would give you the shirt off his back. If you were in need, he'd help you out."

The uncertainly surrounding LaBrie's killing is difficult for his family to bear.

"He has a lot of loved ones down here," said John LaBrie, who lives in Palmdale, Calif., not far from his brother's three grown children. "None of us our resting at ease until we find out."

John LaBrie described his brother as a happy-go-lucky, free spirit who didn't have any enemies. He speculates that perhaps his brother was at a bar and somehow crossed another patron.

"Somebody's got to know something," John LaBrie said. "It's a small town out there."

Whatever happens, John LaBrie's already forgiven his brother's killer, steadfast in his belief that the person will face justice, in this life or the next.

"I believe in God and Jesus Christ," John LaBrie said. "He will go to hell if he doesn't repent and ask for forgiveness."

As for the investigation, the sheriff's office hasn't received any new tips on the case in several months. But that doesn't mean investigators have forgotten the case or are giving up.

"There probably isn't a week that goes by," Sellers said, "that it isn't brought up, or at least I think about it."

Reach Joshua Wolfson at (307) 266-0582 or at josh.wolfson@trib.com.