A Brilliant Death (9 page)
“Coroners may, and frequently do, conduct investigations into unusual or suspicious deaths. These are called coroner’s inquests. All documents relating to a coroner’s inquest, unless part of a continuing investigation, also are public record.”
I faked a yawn. “So.”
Travis was clearly perturbed at my lack of interest. “So? You don’t call the possible drowning of two people who had been fornicating moments before their untimely deaths suspicious? Christ, I’ll bet the cops were fighting over who got to investigate this one.”
“The whole affair got a lot of attention, but what was the coroner going to investigate?” I asked. “There were no bodies. The coroner’s primary function is to perform autopsies. You can’t perform an autopsy if you don’t have a body.”
“There still might be some kind of incident report with the coroner or the sheriff.”
“Well, let’s say you find the report. So what? What light could that possibly shed on your mother? It’s not going to help you understand any better who she was, and isn’t that your ultimate goal?”
“Granted, but I still want to see it. It’s a piece of the puzzle, and I want all the information I can get.”
“Okay, so how do we find these reports? It’s been a long time since she died. Would they still be around?”
He held up the book. “According to this, they have to keep all public documents indefinitely and make them available to anyone who wants to see them.”
Central Records was located on the third floor of the county courthouse. Jefferson County had merged its record-keeping sections years earlier in an attempt to save money. Rather than have the auditor, clerk of courts, and sheriff’s department maintain old records, they were shipped to Central Records for storage. Actual paper records were kept for all documents less than twenty years old. Anything older was microfilmed.
We were off school for Easter break beginning the Thursday before Good Friday, and Mom let me use the Buick to drive to Steubenville. We arrived at a door with a frosted glass window, on which was painted in gold letters with black trim, “Central Records.” A brass bell attached to the top of the door jingled as we entered. The attendant had her back to us. She was a skinny thing, hunched over a mound of papers at her desk, a yellow pencil pushing through gray hair that was pulled away from her face and wrapped in a tight bun. She turned slowly in her chair and looked up at us over a pair of reading glasses. “May I help you?” she asked.
“Yes, I’m looking for a copy of a report,” Travis said.
“We have lots and lots of reports, young man. Did you have any
particular
report in mind?”
“My mother died in a boating accident in 1953. Her name was Amanda Baron. I want to see if there might be a sheriff’s department report on the accident.”
“I see. 1953, is it? That was quite a while ago. Any report that old would be in storage in the basement annex. I feel certain that will take some time to locate.”
“How long will it take?”
“Oh, that’s hard to say.” She stood, walked to the counter and slid a Public Records Request Form and a pencil in front of Travis. “Fill this out to the best of your knowledge and we’ll see what we can do. Check back in a couple of days.”
Travis called the following Monday and Wednesday. On Friday, I drove him up after baseball practice. Each time we were told the search was continuing but no report had been found. I made the next trip with Travis the following Friday, more than two weeks after our initial visit. This time, however, it was there. When she saw us walk in, the woman stood and pulled a set of stapled pages from a folder. “Five pages,” she said. “That will be twenty-five cents. I can only give you the sheriff’s incident report, which essentially is an accounting of the events the night your mother died. I can’t release the detective bureau report.”
His brow furrowed. “Excuse me?”
“I said, you can have the incident report, but not the investigative report by the homicide detectives. The investigative report is considered the sheriff’s department work product. As long as it’s an active case, the work product is not public record.”
Travis slid a dollar bill across the counter. “But it was an accidental drowning. Why would there be a homicide investigation?”
“I’m quite sure I don’t know.” She fished through a coin drawer below the counter and pushed three quarters back across the counter.
“Can I just look at it?” Travis asked. “I mean, it’s what, sixteen years old? Why is it still active? Who would care about it now?”
She shook her head. “That is a question you’ll need to ask the sheriff. The reason we had such trouble finding the incident report was because we were looking in the archives. It wasn’t there because it remains an active case. The sheriff gave me the file, but with explicit orders not to copy or release anything but the incident report, which you now have. If you have additional questions you need to take it up with him.”
“Okay, but I’m still confused. Why is it an active case? Does that mean they thought someone killed my mom?”
“Again, you will have to ask someone at the sheriff’s office.” She turned and went back to her desk of orderly piles. “Good day to you, young sir, and good luck.”
As Travis walked to the door, he watched as she put the file folder in a wire basket at the edge of her desk. As we stepped outside the office, I turned to Travis before he had a chance to speak, and put an index finger near his nose. “Understand me, Travis. I’ve seen that look in your eyes before, and I know what you’re thinking. Sneaking into your attic was one thing, but under no circumstances—none, zero, nada—am I going to break into that office, or the annex, or anywhere to steal that report.”
He waved me off, dismissing me. “I’m not going to ask you to break into anything. God, you’re such a namby-pamby.”
“The mere fact that you’re calling me that tells me that’s exactly what you had in mind.”
He stopped on the landing. “There has to be another way to get it, but why does it even exist? What the hell were they investigating?”
Travis had borrowed two books from the Brilliant Public Library to help him in his search for his mother’s past. One was written by a private detective who specialized in tracking down missing persons, and the other explained how to trace your family history. Both suggested checking the public library for back issues of the local newspaper as a good source of information. I told my mom that I needed to go to the library in Steubenville to research back issues of the Steubenville
Herald-Star
for an American Government project. This was entirely plausible, and she didn’t question it when I asked for the car keys.
The back issues of the
Herald-Star
were on microfilm, tucked neatly in file drawers in the research section on the second floor. The reels of film were wrapped around blue spools. Each spool contained three months’ worth of newspapers. After placing one end of the spool on a spindle and threading the film under the lens and onto an empty spool, Travis turned a knob and the October 1953 editions of the
Herald-Star
began running across the screen. The stories were not hard to find. This had been big news in the Upper Ohio River Valley, and the stories stretched across the top of the front page under bold, banner headlines.
“Jesus Christ, look at this story. This must have been some big deal,” Travis said.
October 2, 1953:
BRILLIANT WOMAN, MALE COMPANION
BELIEVED DEAD IN BOATING MISHAP
A 22-year-old Brilliant woman and her yet unidentified companion were believed to have drowned early today when a barge laden with iron ore rammed their drifting pleasure craft on the Ohio River, about two miles north of the LaGrange Locks.
At press time today, authorities were continuing to search the river for the bodies of Amanda Baron and the man, both of whom are missing and presumed dead.
Jefferson County Sheriff Stuart DiChassi said Mrs. Baron, of 232 Shaft Row, and the male were seen jumping from a 20-foot cabin cruiser about 1 a.m., shortly before the barge reduced it to kindling. The captain of the tug pushing the barge said the couple appeared to jump clear of the wreckage, but may have been pulled under the barge, or drowned in the strong current.
The craft was owned by Mrs. Baron’s husband, Francis M. Baron, who authorities were attempting to contact at press time. Mr. Baron is a long-haul trucker and left yesterday afternoon for a trip to Arkansas, according to relatives.
“There are a number of unanswered questions, but I’m not sure we’ll ever get them answered unless we identify the gentleman who was on the boat with Mrs. Baron and find him alive, which seems highly unlikely at this point,” the sheriff said. “We’ve received no reports of a missing man anywhere in the area, so I guess it’s possible that he swam to shore.”
Asked if Mrs. Baron could have swum to shore, too, DiChassi said, “Anything is possible, but I don’t find it likely.”
According to DiChassi, the
Belle of the Ohio
, a tug owned by the Monongahela Iron and Coal Company of Pittsburgh, was transporting an 18-barge train of iron ore to the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Plant in Martins Ferry when the accident occurred. Captain Jess Kull, 52, said he was aligning the barge for passage through the LaGrange Locks when he saw the small craft.
According to the incident report, Kull said he had no time to reverse his engines or steer clear of Baron’s boat. Kull told authorities that he blasted his horn, and a naked man and woman ran out of the cabin and leaped from the side of the craft. Kull said the tug and barge continued downstream another quarter-mile before coming to a stop.
DiChassi said Mrs. Baron was the mother of an infant son. He said the boy was apparently left alone at the Baron home, but is now with his grandparents.
“She left me alone in the house, for God’s sake!” Travis yelped, turning heads our way throughout the second floor.
“That doesn’t sound like something she would do, based on everything you’ve told me about her,” I whispered.
He said nothing, but turned the advancement knob and scrolled to the next day’s edition of the
Herald-Star.
Again, the headline stretched across the top of the front page.
October 3, 1953:
SEARCH CONTINUES FOR MISSING
BRILLIANT WOMAN, COMPANION
Authorities entered their second day of searching the Ohio River near the LaGrange Locks for the bodies of Amanda Baron of Brilliant and a male companion.
Jefferson County Sheriff Stuart DiChassi said rescue workers expanded the search to an area south of the locks, some two miles from where Mrs. Baron’s pleasure craft was rammed by an iron ore barge early yesterday. Members of the Brilliant Volunteer Fire Department walked the river’s Ohio and West Virginia banks for five miles yesterday, but failed to find the missing woman or her yet-unidentified companion.
DiChassi said the search will continue until he is certain the bodies cannot be located within his jurisdiction. “If the bodies went over the dam, then God only knows where they could end up,” DiChassi said. “This is such a tragedy, and it’s taking a heck of a toll on these men.”
Mrs. Baron and the unidentified man were seen jumping from a cabin cruiser shortly before it was rammed by the barge.
Mrs. Baron was married and her husband, Francis, was out of town at the time of the accident. She is the mother of an infant son, Travis, who is with relatives. Mr. Baron, an independent truck driver, returned from a trip to Arkansas early today. DiChassi said Mr. Baron could offer no explanation as to why Mrs. Baron would be out on the river, with another man, after dark. Relatives said Mr. Baron was too distraught to speak to the
Herald-Star
.
DiChassi said deputies are attempting to retrace Mrs. Baron’s steps Thursday night in hopes of learning more of the events leading to her death. DiChassi said it was “very critical” to learn the identity of the mystery man who was on the boat with Mrs. Baron.
The following Monday’s paper carried a terse story on the front page, below the fold.
October 5, 1953:
OFFICIALS HALT SEARCH FOR
AMANDA BARON, MYSTERY MAN
Authorities have called off the search for a missing Brilliant woman and her male companion, who disappeared after their pleasure craft was crushed by a barge early Friday.
“It breaks our hearts to quit, but it just seems fruitless to continue searching” said Brilliant Fire Chief Dick Schultz. “We’ll just wait and see if the river gives something up.”
Killed in the accident were Amanda Baron, 22, and an unidentified male companion. The couple was seen jumping from the 20-foot boat just seconds before it was hit by the barge.
