HARDIN CO.—Despite plenty of information available, there are some in Hardin County who aren’t understanding the sequence of events that lead to the reporting of the death of Elizabethtown fire chief Tim Dillard Tuesday.
Further to that, the issue has now polarized two groups in Hardin: A small contingent who believe Dillard’s suicide was prompted by his front-page article this issue (July-August 2013) and a much, much larger contingent who believe that in no way would the man commit suicide, and are seeking answers from law enforcement as to not only how Dillard actually died, but under what circumstances…as they believe it’s more likely that a murder was committed than a suicide.
The latter are among a group of friends, family and co-workers over the years who state a number of reasons they don’t believe he died from gas inhalation (as it was confirmed Tuesday that there was a gas line pulled loose in the interior of his house on Pearl Street in Elizabethtown), and if he did, it wasn’t intentional. Chief among these reasons are:
> They don’t believe for a second that he would willingly leave his 16-year-old daughter without a father, since, as one family member put it, that girl was his life;
> They don’t believe he would have taken any pills, unhooked the gas, and allowed himself to fall asleep with the house filling up with gas as he was a smoker and, should he have awakened and forgotten what he was “in the process of doing,” he might have lit a cigarette, igniting the entire house (and a better part of the block);
> They don’t believe he would have risked his daughter’s safety by filling the house with gas, as she could very easily have walked into a house full of fumes and something could have ignited it, causing potential danger for her;
> They particularly don’t believe he would have taken his life over the article, which he had been working with Disclosure on for several days prior to publication, as he is described as “somewhat full of himself” and any negative connotation in the article wouldn’t have bothered him at all;
> He was making plans just the night before with a friend, plans to be undertaken over the next several days.
Then, in the other court, are the small contingent of people who still support the county’s prosecutor, who, if she had been forthcoming with FOIA’d materials, might have offset the publication of the article they’re all griping over anyway. But her inexplicable refusal to allow Disclosure access to phone records for her office after January 2013 (while allowing access to records before February 2013, which was when she herself said in court documents the investigation into school board president Jerry Dean Fricker began) prompted the digging into the matter further, and the uncovering of Dillard’s part in it.
E-town village president Bertis Cook, as identified on Courtney Spivey’s Facebook page.
This little group for whatever reason believes that they can change facts simply by stating they “aren’t true”, but they are, and here’s how we know: We were delivering papers to the Rose Hotel when an older gentleman came in and asked for a paper, wanting to read it because of what just happened—that Bertis Cook, E-town village president, had found the fire chief dead in his home. Disclosure contacted the sheriff’s department and confirmed that this was the case. End of story. So the ‘version’ of events, as the detractors are saying, came from Bertis himself. If Bertis didn’t find Dillard, then he’s the one lying, not us. But you wouldn’t believe that by the misinformation campaign they’re conducting:
It never ceases to amaze me how some people believe appropriate grammar, proper spelling, and correct sentence structure can have phrases like “worst piece of writing ever” slung at it and think that confers some kind of definitive description. Am I writing above their heads, and they can’t really comprehend what’s being written, so they automatically think it’s “bad”? Should I dumb things down? Just wondering.
You can read that article here. In it, nowhere could anything be considered libel. Apparently, the reading comprehension-challenged (RCC) in this mix are attempting to imply that we’re inferring Bertis Cook unhooked the gas line. I’ve read and re-read the article. I just don’t see that. But the RCCs might want to be careful….their feigned outrage over this might lead someone else—say, investigators—to start looking at such a thing. And they might not want to be too quick to say no argument ensued. They may not know who overheard such an argument, and are reporting it thusly.
And then of course there are the Tara supporters, although they are really dwindling in number. They are backing Dillard’s bizarre, last-minute alteration to his story that he “didn’t know” Wallace and had “never spoken with her,” as he told us more than a week ago….right about the time he was seen walking with her and talking to her at the back of the courthouse in E-town.
We don’t know where all of this is going to go, but we’ve just learned that the village (or Cook, at least) has appointed T-Roy Hirsch as fire chief, this after nothing transpired at an “emergency meeting” called by Cook for Wednesday night. When we learn more, we’ll let you know. And as far as getting us “shut down,” good luck. The likelihood of Ms. Spivey being shut out of her Facebook page because she’s denigrating us is higher than the likelihood of “shutting us down.” My idiot stepfather has been trying for years and has gotten nowhere. What makes her think she can do any better…well, that’s laughable. But go ahead and try…every time he does, it gives him ink, just like when you spew venom on your Facebook page (where you take advantage of the same First Amendment we do here), Courtney, it gives YOU ink.
Think about it.