A body was found at the home of Dennis Day, an original Disney Mouseketeer who has been missing for over eight months. The human remains have not been identified and the investigation is ongoing, according to a statement sent to USA TODAY Saturday by Captain Tim Fox, a spokesperson for the Oregon State Police. "On Thursday, April 4, 2019, the Medford Assault and Death Investigation Unit (MADIU) was contacted by the Phoenix Police Department after human remains were discovered at 510 Pine Street in Phoenix, Oregon," the statement read. Day, 76, a Mouseketeer with Disney's Mickey Mouse Club for two years in the mid-1950s, was once among the most famous child performers on American television. He danced and sang on millions of black-and-white TVs across the nation, wearing the iconic mouse-ear beanie and sweaters emblazoned with his name. But Day has not been seen since July, when he vanished from his small town of Phoenix. He left behind his beloved cat and dog and his partner of more than 45 years, Ernest Caswell, who suffers from dementia-related memory problems and now lives in assisted care. His sister, Nelda Adkins of Coalinga, California, told USA TODAY in February that she fears the worst. "The way it looks now, unless we find a body, we're not going to find him," she said. Day's rural home and property had been previously searched, along with local cemeteries and canals, to no avail. Lt. Jeff Price of Phoenix's police told USA TODAY two months ago that Day's car was found about 200 miles away on the Oregon coast in the possession of two strangers who claimed Day had let them borrow it. It was impounded by Oregon State Police and later searched, but there was no sign of foul play, Price said. Contributing: Maria Puente More:'Ranking Roger' Charlery, vocalist in General Public and The English Beat, is dead at 56 More:Nipsey Hussle shooting suspect Eric Holder pleads not guilty to murder charge<doc-sep>Police have discovered a corpse in the home of Dennis Day, 76, an original cast member on Disney's "The Mickey Mouse Club" who has been missing for the last eight months. The body has not been identified publicly by authorities in the southern Oregon town of Phoenix, where the residence is located. It is believe to be the body of Dennis Day but the confirmation has not been made. Day was reported missing last year by his husband, Ernie Caswell, to whom Day was only married in 2009 after 37 years together. Caswell suffers from memory loss associated with age-related dementia. He reported Day as missing from a hospital where he was being treated. Caswell also suffers colon cancer. Because of his memory and health issues, Caswell was not able to notify the rest of Day's family that he was missing, and the police made no notifications. The family realized he was missing after months without contact when they saw a story about him on the news. (Image source: Facebook screenshot) The AP reports that after Day's car was found abandoned on the Oregon coast, the family told their story on "Dateline" and indicated they felt the investigation was being "poorly" handled. In their own efforts to locate their missing loved one, they set up set up a "Help Us Find Dennis Day!" Facebook group. Investigators from Medford, Oregon are examining the remains at the request of police in Phoenix. Dennis Day began his Disney career when he was hired for the first cast of 'The Mickey Mouse Club' at age ten. He shares his name with another Disney performer, the Dennis Day who was the voice of Johnny Appleseed in Disney cartoons. They are not related. The Mouseketeer Day moved to Oregon with Caswell in the 1980s.<doc-sep>Authorities found a corpse last week at the Oregon home of a former Mouseketeer who has been missing since July, a police spokesman confirmed Sunday. The body, which has not been identified, was found on Thursday at the Phoenix home of Dennis Day, Oregon State Police Capt. Timothy Fox said Sunday. Fox confirmed that authorities in Phoenix asked the Medford Police Department's assault and death investigation unit to examine the corpse. Police have not said how the body was found and Fox said no additional details were immediately available. Dennis Day Alamy Day, an original Mouseketeer, began appearing on Disney’s The Mickey Mouse Club TV Show during its first season in 1955 when he was 12. Day vanished last July, according to this sister, Nelda Adkins, who spoke to Dateline earlier this year. Day’s husband, Ernie Caswell, was hospitalized at the time and reported him missing after Day stopped visiting, Dateline reported. A roommate who had been living with the couple reportedly told authorities that before Day disappeared he left their home on foot to visit friends, Dateline reported. But Day’s car was later found with two people on the Oregon coast, NBC affiliate KOBI reported. It wasn't clear how the people, who were not identified, gained access to it, according to the station. Phoenix is in central Oregon, south of Medford. Dennis Day, left, and his sister, Nelda Adkins. Police searched Day’s home, a nearby graveyard and a creek for traces of Day but found nothing, Adkins told Dateline. “They said they brought in cadaver dogs, too,” she added. “But they never found anything that would imply a crime had happened.” Adkins said that Day’s family — most of whom live in California — didn’t find out that he was missing until several months after he vanished, when a relative saw a local television news report about it. At the time, Caswell was hospitalized with dementia and hadn't been able to provide contact information for his family, Dateline reported. Local authorities, meanwhile, reportedly told Adkins that they had no record of other relatives, according to the show. "We are devastated,” Adkins told Dateline. “We had no idea anything was happening and six months into it, we figured it out. We should have been notified.” Local authorities have not responded to previous requests for comment.<doc-sep>
Police in Oregon this week discovered a corpse at the home of Dennis Day, an original Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer who has been missing for more than eight months. There has been no positive identification or cause of death released on the human remains, the Oregonian reported, citing a police statement. Authorities have yet to release more details about how the body was found. ORIGINAL MICKEY MOUSE CLUB MOUSEKETEER DENNIS DAY WAS 'RECLUSIVE' BEFORE HE WENT MISSING, LIEUTENANT SAYS Police in Phoenix, Ore., on Thursday conducted a search and asked Medford death investigators to examine a body found at a home belonging to the former child star, the paper reported. Day, 76, who appeared on the variety show from 1955 until its end in 1957, vanished in July 2018 after he reportedly told his husband, Ernie Caswell, that he was going to visit friends. Caswell, who has dementia and lives in an assisted living facility, reported his partner’s disappearance to police days later on July 15. Day’s car was discovered near the Oregon coast about 200 miles away from his home on July 26 in the possession of two people “unfamiliar” to the couple, but there was no evidence of a crime having been committed or that Day was in the vehicle, Phoenix police Lt. Jeff Price told Fox News in March. Price also said at the time that both Day and Caswell were “reclusive” and their home was in “very, very poor shape.” He added that Caswell’s memory loss made it difficult to get crucial details for the investigation. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “At this point, [the case] is still open and obviously I haven’t found Dennis,” Price said at the time. He also shared that there was no evidence of foul play up to that point. Day is described as being 5 feet, 7 inches tall with gray/brown hair, weighing about 150 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to call (888) 960-6450. Fox News' Stephanie Nolasco and Kathleen Joyce contributed to this report.