CLEVELAND, OH – Four years ago, Martha Grimes interred an empty coffin in the family plot, a common practice for the families of Evanescence victims like her husband, Carl. There seemed no question of his fate; three witnesses had seen the 42-year-old St. Petersburg resident vanish from his barstool just after last call at his usual local pub. At the time this was reported to the WDNP and the authorities as an evanescence event.
That is, until Martha saw her supposedly deceased husband in the crowd of a televised football game in Cleveland. “They were doing the kiss cam on the crowd, you know, and I’m watching this guy smooching on his lady and I think, boy, does that look like my Carl.”
She took her suspicions to social media. Within a month, she was in contact by Melissa Stanwick, long-time girlfriend of the man she knew as Donald Lightfoot. The pair had met online, meeting in person only twice before he moved into her home in Cleveland. Looking back now, Stanwick says, she can see the signs.
“Maybe a year ago I suggested we get married and he just went off on me,” Stanwick recalled to reporters. “I thought he was just afraid of commitment but, in hindsight, I guess I should’ve been more suspicious.”
Police are investigating whether a crime has been committed and, if so, who of those involved could face charges. Fraud, conspiracy, and filing a false report are all on the table for Carl Grimes and the three witnesses who claimed to have seen his evanescence. For Martha Grimes, there are more pressing questions than whether her husband broke the law.
“I mean, is he even still my husband?” Martha wondered weeping. “We had a home here, two young kids, he had his steady job at the insurance company. Why would he just walk away from that to go to Cleveland, of all places?”
For now, Carl Grimes has returned to his former home in St. Petersburg. “Not my first choice, honestly,” Grimes told reporters, “but after Melissa kicked me out, where the hell else was I supposed to go?”
Request for comment from the witnesses of the event have not been returned.
