I know this is an old thread but I though it would update it. There have been some interesting developments.
Bryan was 62. He said he grew up in Texas and I assumed he had been born there. I vaguely remember him saying his father had lived in TN one point. He told me his parents and sister were all dead. He did tell me his father had been an engineer and was well educated. At Bryan’s age, it’s reasonable to expect his parents to have died. By February, the Memphis Police Department has ZERO leads on Bryan’s next of kin. I decided to enlist the help of my genealogy friends on Facebook. I’ve been into genealogy for over 35 years but doing research now is so much easier.
To make a long story short, within 4 hours of posting a message on the genealogy group FB page, a friend in California identified Bryan’s mother and father. His father was born in **** and was working on his Master’s in Engineering at Cornell when Bryan was born in ****. Over the years, his father worked for **** in ****, **** in ****, and **** in **** state. This explains why Brian grew up in Texas. Here’s the shocker. Bryan’s parents are still alive. His mother moved into a care facility back in November 2019 in ****. His father is 94 and living in **** again. That’s only 2 hours from me. I spoke to Bryan’s dad that night. Bryan looked just like his dad and sounded like him to. John told me he hadn’t talked to Bryan in 40 years. John agreed to sign what ever documents were necessary for the MPD to release Bryan’s possessions to me. We finally got a letter notarized and in their hands in April. I have since spoken to the Sgt in charge of Bryan’s case and he said he sent the paperwork to the legal department but no further progress has been made.
I was told several months ago that Bryan’s pistol would never be released because it was used in the commission of a crime. I’m going to wait until I get the rest of Bryan’s stuff before I fight them on that issue. Suicide has been decriminalized in every state. No crime was committed and they can’t permanently seize his property unless he was found guilty of a crime. We will see how that goes.
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