A Local Mystery: Missing Money, Mechanic Dead

Harry Meyers was found dying in his wrecked automobile on the Scioto Trail on the morning of Sunday, October 15, 1922. He was taken to Hempstead Hospital and died later at 6:30 am. There were no scratches or bruises found on his body that indicated what caused his death. A postmortem was performed, and it revealed that he had a burst blood vessel in his abdomen. A sudden jar would’ve caused that injury. Investigators had many unanswered questions. How did he wreck his car? Was there anybody else with him when it happened? Meyers had over $350 on him, and it was missing. Where did that money go?

Meyers was discovered by Jacob Hill and William Raike. They had spent Saturday night at a dance in Chillicothe and were on their way home Sunday morning when they noticed headlights of a vehicle over the steep bank on the curve about halfway between a farm and Rosemount Road. They decided to stop, and they found Meyers hanging outside his vehicle. According to Hill, Meyers had a foot caught in the steering wheel, the front door was open, and his body was hanging out the doorway. Hill said that Meyers told him to take his shoe off, so his foot could be released. When Meyers said that, Hill was already taking Meyers’ shoe off. However, Raike said that Meyers’ shoe was not taken off to release the foot. Despite the differences in that detail of the story, they both put Meyers in their car and rushed him to Hempstead Hospital.

Hill knew Meyers because they worked together. Meyers was an auto mechanic, and Hill had left Meyers working at the Paige Garage on Robinson Avenue at 5:30 Saturday evening. He didn’t see Meyers again until he found him in his wrecked car. Mrs. Meyers said her husband came home shortly after 3 pm and gave her a check for $25, saying he would be back to pick her up at 6:30 pm. He never returned, which made her worried. She called the garage and was able to get him on the phone. She could tell he had been drinking, so she rushed over to the garage and tried convincing him to come home. Customers Mr. and Mrs. Knost arrived shortly after she did and tried to make a payment for the repairs Mr. Meyers made on their vehicle. After seeing Mr. Meyers’ condition, Mrs. Knost didn’t let her husband pay for the repairs. The Knosts tried to convince Mr. Meyers to get into their vehicle. They ended up taking him and his wife home. Mrs. Meyers said she pushed her husband onto the bed and made an effort to see if he still had $300. Mrs. Meyers saved up small sums of money from time to time until she had over $350. This money was used for her approaching illness. Her husband asked for that money Saturday morning because he had an urgent use for it. He still had the money when she checked. In addition to that money she gave him, he had two checks. Unfortunately, he left the house again, and she didn’t hear anything until 7 am on Sunday, when the hospital notified her that her husband had died.

All they found on him was a few dollars in his clothes, his keys, and his watch. Where did the rest of the money go? Hill said that Meyers’ watch and keys fell out of his pocket when they moved him from his car to theirs. He never mentioned any money. Was someone with Meyers when the accident happened? Did someone arrive on the scene before Hill and Raike did and robbed Meyers of his money? Did Hill and Raike know more? All of these questions are still left unanswered. The only update made in the paper was on October 17, 1922. Several residents in Lucasville reported seeing a man fitting Meyers’ description in the same type of car he was driving. That man had stopped in Lucasville on Saturday night at 8:30 pm and was inquiring about how to get to Chillicothe. All the people that spoke to that man claimed that he appeared to be drunk. They advised him to turn around and go back to Portsmouth. Most likely that man was Meyers. If that was him, what happened between that time and the time of the accident? Why was he heading to Chillicothe? Unfortunately, this is a mystery still left unsolved today.