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Attorney Who Faked Death Now At Home

William Grothe Refuses To Answer Questions

POSTED: 3:21 pm CDT April 2, 2009
UPDATED: 5:49 pm CDT April 3, 2009

No one knew where Nashville attorney William Grothe was, but the Channel 4 I-Team tracked him down very close to home.

There are a lot of people who have questions for Grothe -- including police and the volunteers who spent days searching for him -- who was thought to be dead until police announced he faked his death.

Now that he's home, he could face some serious criminal charges. But, as the Channel 4 I-Team found, he's not anxious to discuss any of it.

It was unknown what Grothe looked like these days. But there he was, at his wife's home in a gated Franklin community, looking well for a man everyone thought was dead.

"I'm not going to be talking," Grothe said to Channel 4 reporter Jeremy Finley.

"I've got a couple questions for you," Finley said.

"No," said Grothe.

Grothe didn't want to discuss the many questions surrounding what police describe as a faked death.

It began Nov. 19, when Grothe told a co-worker he was going for a walk at about noon in east Nashville's Shelby Park. He didn't return to work. Several police agencies and the Office of Emergency Management spent days searching Shelby Park.

Grothe's locked, silver Honda Civic was found at the park's boat ramp, and some of his belongings -- a credit card, his driver's license and his wedding band -- were found in a plastic bag.

Police said Grothe called Nashville police five days after his disappearance, posing as his own killer.

He later checked into a Missoula, Mont., motel under his wife's maiden name.

The I-Team learned he biked there, paid in cash and led the Thanksgiving Day prayer for the motel staff. The motel's manager called Grothe unique: "Instead of wearing sunglasses, he wore swimming goggles, and so that's what I mean when I say he was unique," said Connie LeVasseur, who said Grothe said he was from New York City and gave her an address there.

"It turns out to be a hoax," said Amanda Sluss of the Office of Emergency Management. "So it is very disheartening to our staff and our volunteers alike that it happened."

Now home in Franklin after spending time in an undisclosed treatment facility, Grothe could face three potential charges -- insurance fraud, initiating a false police report and faking his own death -- according to police who have spoken with the district attorney.

The district attorney has not yet decided with what, if anything, to charge him.

"Playing dead is a crime," said former prosecutor Jim Todd. "To knowingly give someone the impression of death is a class A misdemeanor."

Grothe's family said it believed he was dead, yet the I-Team found him at his wife's home.

Grothe has hired attorneys, but they did not return calls requesting comment.

Metro police said Grothe returned to Franklin a few weeks ago.


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