There seems to be something of an urban legend going around about a suspicious death, possible arson and a police cover-up in Church Hill.
Here’s how it goes, told every time almost word for word: There’s been some “ugliness” in Church Hill. A fellow was found hanged in a garage two doors up from Rhodes store in early July. When he was cut down, they found his throat had been cut. It happened the same night one of the gas pumps at the store was vandalized. The sheriff’s office has hushed it all up, and the State Police don’t know anything.
And this is what Lt. Dale Patrick of the Queen Anne’s Sheriff’s Office says about that: “There was a suicide there. The subject committed suicide. Naturally he was cut down. Gas pumps were damaged. There is nothing to relate the two as far as we know now.”
Was this deliberately kept quiet?
Patrick: “We don’t usually tell everybody in town about a suicide. That’s for a couple of reasons. It’s out of respect for the dead” — and their families. “And we don’t want to encourage copycat situations.”
But when are such details made public?
Patrick: “If there is a suspicion of foul play, or a serious assault, or if it was felt the public had a need to know for their own safety, it definitely would be broadcast.”
What about talk of the victim’s throat being cut?
Patrick: “Sometimes in a hanging there are marks, there are lacerations. An autopsy sometimes takes 30 days or more. But there are no signs of foul play on that.”
So, an urban legend? In Church Hill? Anyway, why can’t they call them small town legends? Word of mouth in a place like that, as everybody in these parts knows, travels faster than a New York City minute. And wilder, here, too.
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