Larkie Toups disappeared from a Bogalusa hotel shortly after Washington Parish Sheriff deputies got him to check into a room when they reportedly found him walking drunkenly just outside city limits on Jan. 1, 2008.

The WPSO and Bogalusa Police Department immediately began investigations, which are ongoing, and dog teams have been brought in more than once to check sites considered of interest.

No sign of the former tugboat crewman from Galliano, who was in Bogalusa to visit a friend, has been found, except for the ID card and room key he left in the open room.

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Now Toups’ family has contacted Irvin Magri, president of Louisiana Crimefighters, the state’s largest victims rights organization, who has an award-winning true-crime radio show, Crime Wave. The local missing persons case is about to reach a wider audience.

Magri, a retired policeman and founder of PANO, the first police union in the south, visited Bogalusa Wednesday to check out the scene and to get the latest information from detectives on the case.

The 45-year criminologist, who still teaches at the academy and who formerly served as president of the all police unions in the state, including Bogalusa’s, praised the BPD’s dedication and perseverance on the case.

“They have not given up,” he said. “We got a lot of cooperation, and I was overly impressed with the Bogalusa Police Department, specifically the detectives.”

BPD spokesman and detective Capt. Joe Culpepper said he’s happy for assistance in getting the case solved.

“We appreciate any help we can get, wherever it comes from,” he said.

Magri said the Toups family will be featured on his show and that time is a factor.

“Mr. Toups’ mother, Rose, is dying of cancer and she’s not going to live much longer,” he said. “We’re trying to give her some closure.”

The story and a call for anyone with information about the case to make contact is scheduled to run on Crime Wave between noon and 1 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20. The show airs on 100.3 FM and 1600 AM. It will reach listeners in 24 parishes, said Magri.

Toups is 5-foot-6-inches tall and weighed approximately 160 pounds when he was last seen. He was 47 years old when he disapeared.

Anyone with information on the case or Toups’ whereabouts is urged to call the BPD Tip Line at 732-2878 or the WPSO at 732-7187. Callers may remain anonymous.