Thursday, May 7, 2009
Crazy Crap / Hargrove SESAC Attorney Who Faked His Own Death Returns to Nashville, Faces Charges
Posted by Brantley Hargrove on Thu, May 7, 2009 at 5:30 AM
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SESAC attorney William Grothe has been back home in Franklin for a couple of weeks now after a Coen Brothers-esque road trip that seemed more like a Mad Lib-ed plot: Insert Montana, faking a death, Arizona treatment institution, pretending to be your own killer.
The District Attorney's Office has announced Grothe pleaded guilty to attempting to defraud his life insurance company and to faking his own death when he came to the police station to pick up his belongings today. And that's where the story began, anyway.
He disappeared on Nov. 19 last year. That evening his BlackBerry, jewelry and credit cards were found tied up in a plastic bag on the lawn of a home on South 5th Street. Later that night officers found his Honda Civic parked in Shelby Park near the Cumberland River boat ramp. Police launched a full-on search for Grothe involving police dogs, officers on foot, Office of Emergency Management divers and recovery workers. The only trace they found was his wallet and cap on the riverbank and his leather jacket in the river.
In the days following his disappearance Grothe checked into a motel in Missoula, Mont. Police determined through voice analysis that the man who called police on Nov. 24, claiming to be Grothe's killer, was, in fact, Grothe.
In early January police learned Grothe checked himself into a medical facility in Arizona for psychological evaluation. It remains to be determined whether he'll be forced to pay the $11,000 Metro government spent looking for him.
If anybody knows Grothe or can provide a little insight into his long, strange journey and why he took it to begin with, feel free to give me a call at 615-844-9403 or shoot an email to bhargrove@nashvillescene.com.
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