Scott passed away in his sleep November 10, 2010 in a small
remote beach community in Mexico called Yelapa.
I haven't seen the autopsy report yet, but the US Embassy said it was
asphyxiation from vomiting in his sleep.
The investigators found no money or identification in his room, only a
plane ticket stub, or more likely a
boarding pass with his name on it. They
also found a backpack stuffed with lots of clothes, sun tan lotion, goggles for
swimming, and a 761 page book, “The Sociology of Art” by Arnold Hauser. He was found by the caretaker who told us he
was to leave that morning back to Puerto Vallarta which is a 30 minute ride by
water taxi. The caretaker told us that
after he found Scott he contacted the police in El Tuito who was in charge of the investigation. Once the investigation
was complete Scott was taken to Puerto Vallarta and the US Embassy was
called. Since no identification was
found the Embassy did not know if he was an American Citizen or not, but
assumed he was. I was told by our
Embassy contact, Kelly Trainer, if Scott were from most other countries they
would have held him for only a few days, cremated him and put his ashes in a
common grave and we would have never known what had happen to him. But Kelly believed he was an American
citizen, so after the autopsy she had him embalmed and began to try to find his
friends and family.
The last time I spoke to Scott was on October 30, 2010. He told me he was going to Houston to do a
dog and pony show as he always called it with his art dealer. It was really presenting his artwork to
potential buyers. He was excited because he knew he would be selling a lot of
work and making a lot of money. After
Houston he’d go to Mexico to camp. From
there he would be at my place by about the 19th or 20th of
November. He’d then rent a car to take
some of his artwork he left here at my place and go back to Chicago, and then
be to his family’s home in Wisconsin for Thanksgiving.
When he didn’t show up or call, I realized I had no phone
numbers for his art dealer or his family. So I started to search for phone
contacts by buying lists with his family name and calling previous art
dealers. After about a week of searching
I got the number to Scott’s brother’s, wife’s, mother. By now it was after Thanksgiving and he
hadn’t shown up to his families’ home. They were worried and began to call the
Chicago police to file a missing persons report. Thinking he was in Mexico, I called the FBI
who said it would be better to go through the Chicago police and put out the
missing persons report. They could then
see what flight he was on, see credit card usage and locations, go through
phone records to track down his art dealer.
Basically follow the tail to see were he was on his trip. So his brother
Rodd did that. A few days later a friend
of mine from the FBI called and explained how to search for him in Mexico. I Googled and found a list of US Embassy’s
for Mexico. I noticed the one in Puerto
Vallarta first, and since he lived there last year I started there. First I tried calling but they were closed.
So I sent an email. Within an hour Kelly
called me back with the sad news that they do have him and he had passed
away.
By now it’s December 1st , and what we knew was
that Scott was in Mexico with no passport, no money, and at the time we thought
he had no possessions. It was so
weird. A million thoughts of what had
happened were running through all our minds.
So I and two of Scott’s good friends, Jimmy O’Halloren and
David Reaume got a flight and headed to Puerto Vallarta to get Scott and find
out what happened.
I’ll write more later
today and send it out tonight.
Oh yea, David is right. I found out about Scott on December
1st 2010. But let me back up a bit.
It was Monday November 29, 2010 around 6:30 in the evening when I found
Sandy and Rodd Griesbach, Scott’s brother and sister-in-law. That’s when they
told me Scott was supposed to be at their home for Thanksgiving. At that point I really knew something was
wrong and in a panic, my first thought was to call a friend who worked for the
FBI. So I left him a message and then
called the Houston FBI office because I thought Scott was in Mexico, maybe
kidnapped or in a Mexican jail and they’d be the ones to get him out.
So Rodd filed the missing police report and then called me
to let me know a detective would be calling for more information. Over the next couple of day I got a few calls
from a number of detectives. But on
Wednesday December 1, I got a call from detective Tuman. He was an aggressive
kind of guy with a abrupt personality. He’d ask questions and then interrupt
the answers. After asking a few question
and interrupting my answers he said, “Well, I’m in Scott’s apartment right now. That was a bit shocking that we had been
having this conversation all along while he was standing in Scott’s apartment,
but what he said next took me back even further. And that was that Scott’s wallet is here with
his credit cards and drivers license in it.
His phone is here with all his contacts are wiped clean. He then said, “I do about 75 investigations a
week and this to me looks like a suicide.”
As he was talking he was describing the room and what was in it. His clothes are hanging up in the closet, no
TV, no computer, a picture of him mugging a face with another guy on a dock by
the water. I told him that’s me with
Scott in Yelapa just last February. He’s
the one with his tongue out. Then he
noticed a DVD in a clear case with DVD written in magic marker on to of the
outside of the case. He said it’s
prominently placed and could be a suicide video. Those words, prominently place, my stomach
ached. He said I’m taking the DVD back to the precinct because I have nothing
to play it on here.
By now I had forgotten about Mexico and started to believe
this strange detective telling me Scott had killed himself. I called Rodd and we started to talk about
the idea. Looking back I can see I began
to build evidence for it …like the time in September 2010, Scott had just
bought a wedding gift for Sandy and Rodd and given it to them ten years late.
Sept 2010. And he bought a $200 bike for
Mackenzie, his niece Sept. 2010. In the
summer of 2009 Scott stayed the summer with me.
He backed up all his artwork and gave it to me, “saying if anything
happens to me here is everything. I’m
backing up a set for my brother Rodd to keep as well.” And for the last year and a half, Scott was
in a lot of pain from his hyper thyroid condition. He said it felt like he had
the flue all the time. All day my mind
was going over and over what had happened to him and believing the detective
was right. After all, he investigates 75
cases a week. I kept asking myself why
Scott had done this and how did he do it.
Why didn’t he reach out to someone?
About 3:30 pm that day I got a return call from my friend
Christopher with the FBI, the person I called when I thought Scott was in
Mexico. Before I could tell him Scott
never left Chicago, he went right into how and what I should do to work with
Mexico. “Start by calling the US
Embassies. Then the consulates. Chris asked where I think he may have
gone. I said maybe PV. He said not much going on there but if he
lived there that would be a good place to start. They have a US Consular. Here
are the phone numbers. I didn’t know the
difference between an embassy, consulate or consular. My head again began to spin with all the
information and I thought I’ll just listened to Chris and after he’s done I’ll
tell him Scott never left Chicago. But as he was speaking, it occurred to me
that we don’t really know if Scott is in Chicago, Houston or Mexico. So when I got off the phone with Christopher
I googled Mexico and embassy and up came the entire embassy’s, consulates and
consular for Mexico. There were not that
many, so I thought I’d call them all. I
started with Puerto Vallarta but they were closed. I remembered they were two hours ahead. Then I noticed an email address and thought
I’ll contact them that way. One thing I
did remember Chris saying was to have all the information you can ready. So I wrote up a petty lengthy email that I
could send to all the US Ebassy’s. Name,
previous addresses, date of birth. Then
I emailed it to the Puerto Vallarta US Consular. In less than 45 minutes they came back with
the sad news. We have him and he’s
passed away.
I spent the next day giving out the bad news. Not sleeping or eating really. I was put in contact with Kelly Trainer who
had more details. Scott was found in his room in Yelapa, with no ID, money, or
possessions. There was no sign of foul
play, and the autopsy report found nothing in his system to kill him.
Again my mind continued to build a case for suicide. I talked to Rodd and he thought that’s the
beach where Scott had died is where Fred had died last year, when Scott and
Fred first moved to PV. Now I was sure
Scott had gone to be with Fred and to be out of his pain. I called Jimmy and David and we decided to go
down to PV and see what really happened.
On Friday December 3, 2010 I hopped a flight to PV. Jimmy and David were on a later flight. From the airport I went straight to see Kelly
Trainer at the US Consulate to sign all the paperwork. Jimmy and David went into PV and got us a
room. Kelly brought out the paperwork to
sign. And then Kelly pulled out an
article she had cut out of a local paper that did a story on Scott. Something like American found dead with
nothing on him in Yelapa. In the picture
was a bag. I recognized it
immediately. I asked how I could get
this bag shown in the article. Kelly
said the bag is in El Tuito or PV Forensics, which is called SEMEFO.
The plan was to view the body later, have him cremated in PV
and take his ashes back to the US. It
had been decided by his family and us to split the ashes in two urns, one for
California and one for his family, and to have a small hand full to take back
to Yelapa, and leave with Fred.
We saw the body that night.
He looked like a mannequin. Not
at all what I had expected. I could
really see that Scott was gone.
That night Jimmy, Dave and I began to put the peaces
together with the new information, the article and the fact that there was a
bag. Scott was not there with nothing,
he had a bag with him. We decided to
head to Yelapa the next day and talk to people who were there at the time.
Saturday morning December 4th 2010. We hopped a water taxi and headed to
Yelapa. It was a beautiful warm
day. I think we were feeling better at
the prospect of finally getting some answers.
And it was strange to be going to the place where both Fred and Scott
died. About 30 minutes later we pulled
into one of the most beautiful beaches I’d ever seen. It had small cottages dotting the hill side
to the left. And open beach in front and a small town to the right of us. David asked the boat drive had they heard
about the American who’d died here. “Oh
yea said the boat drive. Everyone knows
about it.” And he began to describe what he knew and gave us the name of the
place Scott had stayed. It’s right
there, pointing to the center of the beach cove. The driver pulled up to a dock and we climbed
up out of the boat, up a ladder to the top of the dock. Standing on the dock all the memories of
Scott and I visiting this place came rushing in. Here is where the picture was taken of he and
I that the detective found in his apartment just a couple of days ago. And now I find myself right back here. I could see the trail we hike, the restaurant
with the best shrimp tacos pina coladas.
December 16, 2010
We walked to the cottages that were behind a little-out-door
beach restaurant and talked to a waiter, asking if he had heard about the death
of an American last month. He said his
uncle who runs the place was the one who found Scott and he could take us to
him. He brought us to the caretaker and
translated for us. Basically the
caretaker said he went into Scott’s room around 10 AM and found him passed
ways. He closed the door and called the
El Tuito sheriff. The sheriff looked in
and then sealed the room until forensics could go in and do their job, which
they did later that day. Then Scott was
taken back to PV for the autopsy. And
since he was believed to be an American citizen, he was embalmed and held until
his family and friends could be located.
We also talked to the cleaning lady who I think was the
caretaker’s wife. Her room was just
across from Scott’s and she said she heard Scott taking a shower the night
before they found him. And she could see
the light go out of his bathroom window once he was done that night. This was Tuesday the 9th.
The caretaker gave us the dates Scott was there. He arrived the week before, Thursday,
November 4th for one night and left Friday back to PV. The waiter/nephew said he talked with Scott
Friday morning and Scott said he was heading back to PV. Then Scott returned Monday November 8 and
paid for two nights. Monday night the 8th and Tuesday night the 9th
and was to leave on Wednesday morning of the 10th.
After talking with the caretaker and the lady who heard him
taking a shower, I was trying to keep all the dates and times in my head. Then Jimmy surprised David and I by saying he
secretly recorded the whole conversation with his iPhone. Talk about real detective work. How clever was Jimmy? We had the whole conversation on tape and
could get it translated later as it was being translated by the nephew. I think it was the first time I felt good
about the possibility of finding out what was really going on.
Next we sat down at a table on the beach in front of the
haciendas/cottages to go over what we had just heard. The nephew of the caretaker turned out to be
our waiter. We ordered food and started
to talk and ask each other questions.
This turned out to be the best way to find out what happed and to find
Scott’s stuff. By talking it over we
came up with more questions. We also
started to ask the nephew/waiter what he knew.
He said he would see Scott on the beach reading his book. As far as he could tell Scott was alone
relaxing on the beach. And that he would
eat dinner at a local restaurant. He
also said the sheriff was here and called him over. We asked the sheriff if he
knew where Scott’s belonging were being kept.
The sheriff thought they were in El Tuito or SEMEFO in PV. He gave us his phone number and asked that we
call him Monday morning, as Sunday, everything is closed.
So what we knew now, Scott was here before and after the
weekend and his bag was in PV or El Tuito.
Then Jimmy said “I wonder if he kept a place in PV.” That would make perfect sense. He’d keep his more valuable stuff like a
computer, camera, passport in a PV hotel, and from there, pack his smaller
backpack for day trips or overnight trips.
Then it hit me. I told Jimmy and
Dave, “I think I know the place.” I
suddenly remembered a place around the corner from where Scott lived during the
winter, in PV. He’d point it out because
it was only about $15 a night. Every
time we passed it he would say, “can you believe it, only $15 a night.”
The next day was Sunday and didn’t get much done. Monday we called the Sheriff and he said the
backpack was in El Tuito. El Tuito was
about an hour away. We hired a cab
driver and headed to pick up Scott smaller bag.
El Tuito was a small town, which no one spoke English. Luckily our cab driver spoke a little
English. We found the investigator who
performed the on site investigation, and who gave us the same story as the
sheriff and caretaker. The cab driver
translated as the investigator retold the story. As the investigator finished and the driver
began to tell us what had happened, he became emotional and couldn’t really
continue. Luckily Jimmy and David were
on the case with there mighty iPhones, recording the whole thing.
Even though the bag wasn’t there, I’m glad we went to El
Tuito as the story hadn’t really changed by talking to the investigator. The investigator made a call and told us it
was in PV at SEMEFO. We could pick it up
Tuesday 11 am. The sheriff had been
wrong when he told us the bag was in El Tuito.
So we hopped back in the cab, got back to the hotel. Jimmy left Monday afternoon and David and I
stayed.
That night I went out to start asking around about
Scott. I remembered a bar close to the
apartment Scott lived in last year. He introduced me to a waiter he had made
friends with. So I started there.
I used my Android phone to bring up Scott’s picture. When I got to the bar the waiter I was
looking for was not there, and the bartender and waiter who were there had not
seen Scott. They said the waiter I was
looking for worked only on weekends and it was Monday night. So I headed to the little hotel with the sign
that says $15 a night. I got to this
hotel with an older gentleman and a youg lady.
I showed them Scott’s picture, but they hadn’t seen him. So I went across the street, and the very
pretty lady behind the desk took a look at the picture. You could tell she thought Scott was very
handsome. She smiled and lit up when she
looked at him and could hardly take her eyes off him. It was a really good picture of Scott from
his facebook profile. She didn’t speak
English and I didn’t speak Spanish. I
was pointing to dates on a calendar trying to ask if he had stayed there,
November 6 and 7, the weekend I thought he had returned from Yelapa. But she couldn’t understand and just smiled
and looked at his picture on my phone, showing her friend who was sitting in
the lobby, both admiring how good he looked. Then a man walked in and she
grabbed him because he could speak both English and Spanish. I told him my friend had passed away on
Yelapa and I was looking for his belonging and thought they might be here. The man looked at the petty women behind the
desk and said one word, Yelapa. She said knowing right away what he was talking
about with a reply, ahh Yelapa. You
could feel the sadness fill the room.
Her eyes began to tear up. You could tell she was trying to hold back
her tears and couldn’t talk for a minute.
I looked at the man sitting in the lobby looking again at the picture
now with sadness. Scott had that effect
on people when he walked into room.
Everyone got happy when he was around.
After a few minutes the lady behind the desk started to put
it all together. Everything I was trying
to communicate started to make sense to her.
The dates I was pointing to, the belonging I was asking about. She said to the translator that she believes
there was a guy that never returned for his stuff a while back. She asked that I email her with his picture
and she would talk with the manager. She
and the manager could check the video and see if it’s the same person. She ask that I come back tomorrow at 3
pm.
I got back to the hotel and told David. Finally it is all starting to make
sense. Scott was on a vacation, not here
to end his life. And if I could get his
stuff I could prove it. I was sure he
hid the stuff he’d brought with him to PV …so no one would steel it. I remembered the last time I visited Scott in
PV, the day I left, he and I had to sneak my luggage past the manager’s
office. Scott didn’t want the manager to
think he was going on a trip and go in and take his stuff. Knowing this got me more determined and I
wasn’t going to leave PV until we had everything.
Tuesday morning David and I headed over to SEMEFO to get
Scott’s backpack. We got there and they
said come back tomorrow at 9 am. The
lady who could help us was out on a call.
So we left, waited for 3 pm to come around and headed to the hotel. We got to the hotel around 2:30 pm. This time
a different lady was behind the desk.
She ran down the street and brought back a translator. The translator said his stuff was here. I couldn’t believe it. We had his stuff. It was in the building. But the translator then told us we could not
have it. We would have to go through the
US Consulate. So I called the Kelly
Trainer. Luckily she answered the
phone. She was quite surprised we’d
found Scott’s stuff. I told her they
would not release it and she said, “Well let me talk to who ever is in
charge.” So they took us up about 5
flights of stairs the managers roof top apartment. I handed him my phone. They had about a 5 minute conversation in
Spanish. He then hung up, said to come
in and Scott’s big black bag was sitting on the manager dining room table. I recognized it immediately. The manager said, “OK you can take it.” I grabbed the it and thanked the manager and
headed out the door. Scott’s bag was
full of everything you’d take on a vacation.
Suntan lotion, goggles for swimming, swim suite, lots of cloth, CD’s,
DVD and a DVD player that I didn’t know he had.
David went back in to ask in the hotel manager more
questions. He found out that Scott had
check in on November 2, 2010. The
manager pulled up the records and showed us his signature. Now we had Scott, one of his bags and one to
go.
Wednesday morning we were the first to get to SEMEFO. We
brought a translator with us this time.
9 am they opened the doors only to be told to come back in an hour. An hour wasn’t bad. At least they didn’t ask us to come back the
next day. So we took a walk and returned
an hour latter. Carmen was there, she
gave us the bag and we headed back to the hotel.
I started going through all his pockets to find his passport
or anything that told me he was hiding stuff to keep it safe and to prove why
he was on Yelapa with no ID or money.
The backpack was full of more clothes, a big book, goggles, suntan
lotion but no passport anywhere. Then I
was squeezing a pair of his socks that were turned inside in on them self, so
the two individual socks stayed together.
I opened up the socks and found about 700 pesos, or about 90 bucks,
which is a lot for Mexico. I knew
it. Real proof he hide all valuables to
keep them safe.
We didn’t find the passport.
It could be hidden in one of the rooms or it could have been stolen. But
the money hidden away is proof enough.
We also didn’t find his computer. But the fact that he had a portable DVD
player made us think that his computer could be in the shop in Chicago. So I called his brother who found a receipt
for a computer shop. Rodd called the
shop. They said he was there with the
computer but he didn’t leave it with them.
So more detective work to find his computer. I plan to call his phone log once his mom
become trustee of Scott’s work. We can
track his art dealer, computer store, and locate any art that is out in the
public domain.
That’s the story. I
hope this helps to answer important questions for you.
We will all miss Scott I know,
David
