Found Deceased TX - Michael Chambers, 70, Hunt County, 10 March 2017 *found deceased 2023* #8

The bike story just never was believable. For many reasons. Knee condition, physical, condition of bicycle, distance, bridge construction crew, lake levels at the time several more like how does one jump to commit suicide and manage to take bike with them? Without anyone seeing it during broad daylight? .... didn't happen.
 
The guy that found the body - his name was Meredith I believe - stated that he stumbled upon the bicycle and remains East of East Tawakoni, just off of Hwy 276.

That's quite some distance from the bridge connecting East and West, where some theorized that MC may have jumped. More likely, in my opinion is that may have been where MC's cell phone may have been discarded.

The specific area where the remains were found shows ample room on the shoulder of the highway wherein somebody may have parked inconspicuously whilst waiting for a lull in traffic to safely move illict cargo.
Had Michael jumped off of the bridge as some theorized, I just wouldn't be able to see the bicycle making the journey all the way to where he was ultimately found.

More interestingly, is the omission of the state of his Driver's License and cell phone. The articles I've found mention the blue hat, blue t-shirt and bicycle, but no mention of either of the DL or Phone. In fact, the body being found months ago, and only now receiving positive ID based on DNA analysis leads me to believe that both articles had not been recovered - which to me is fairly telling.
 
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Well there is this article. ********************Published April 3, 2018 at 12:42 PM CDT
Hunt County Sheriff Randy Meeks has retracted his statement that Michael Chambers may have committed suicide.

Thirteen months after a retired firefighter went missing from his Hunt County home, Sheriff Randy Meeks says the man vanished on the other in East Tawakoni.

Last March, Michael Chambers disappeared from his home near Quinlan. On Monday, Meeks told Dallas radio station KRLD that the investigation found phone records showing Chambers cell phone crossed the two-mile bridge connecting East Tawakoni to West Tawakoni at about two-and-a-half miles per hour.

Meeks told the Herald-Banner that he thinks Chambers crossed the bridge on a bike.

On Monday, TV station NBC-5 reported that Meeks suspected Chambers had jumped from the bridge and committed suicide. On Tuesday, Meeks walked that comment back in the Herald-Banner, saying he misspoke and that he had no evidence to back up the claim. He told the Herald-Banner that dive crews had already searched the area around the bridge and had turned up nothing.

Chambers was last seen on a surveillance camera at the Quinlan Walmart March 10, 2017.
Sheriff: Missing Firefighter Vanished in East Tawakoni

Seems like he would have had to get that from a family member, right?
 
A handful of people have committed suicide by jumping off of the 2-Mile Bridge. The last one I remember drove his truck to the middle of the bridge, parked it, then got out and jumped. I've never heard of someone riding their bike off of it, then drifting 3-4 miles while still somewhat attached to the bike. I guess stranger things have happened.

Wasn't it mentioned in the ID show that Michael had lived in East Tawakoni or owned land there long ago?
 
A couple of things:
1. On the "Disappeared" episode, Sheriff Meeks and his team did a search at the end of the episode. Does anyone know where that particular search was? It was near the 2-mile bridge, I believe. I just didn't know if anyone recognized where it was in particular.
2. This is my opinion but I think common sense and the evidence supports what I am about to say. The man gave his life to the public for 30 years as a fireman. On the last day of his life, he was doing something for someone else and he was scheduled to go to his grandson's soccer game the following day. By all indications, he was simply a kind, giving man who was enjoying his well-deserved retirement years. This idea that he took a phantom bike ride (I use the word "phantom" because no one saw him during the 2-3 hours it would have taken him to ride his bike to the middle of that bridge, in the middle of construction on the bridge) is preposterous. He was 70 years old with bad knees. Plus, he was just near that location when he took his WalMart trip. What, he drove to Walmart, then back home, then back over there to die by suicide?
3. This is a homicide, plain and simple. Think of where his body was located. At least two people discarded his body like a piece of trash. Think about that for a long minute. Who does that? Hit men don't do that. Random killers don't do that. This is at least two people who really hated this man and wanted to make sure he would not be found.
4. Where did the homicide occur? In the garage. How else would the blood and bloody dowel have gotten there? The blood and the left behind bloody dowel were not in the killers' plans. I believe that the killers were sweating on the night of Friday, March 10 because they thought they made some very key mistakes. LE gave them a gift when they started talking about a staged scene, dropped blood, etc. Who would have thought that LE would not have thought the garage was the crime scene????
5. I could be wrong about the timeline but with the cell phone pings, Sheriff Meeks said on "Disappeared" something like his cellphone "was on the other side of Lake Towakoni" (east Towakoni) in the afternoon (2:30pm, I think) but that the last ping from his cell phone was in the 5pm hour at the middle point of the bridge. It seems possible that someone tossed his cell phone into the Lake on the way BACK to the west side of the Lake (from where they came). With all that being said, it seems like a boat had to have been involved in this case. How do you get the body to that location without a boat?
 
Well. I am happy that mystery is solved. I am sad that he was treated so horribly. 0% chance he went there himself. Looking at that map, I'm still leaning towards boat. That path seems accessible by water. His home also seems near that water.

Ok, time to move to our next phase! We watched and waited until he was found. Now is the tine the evidence can be pulled together for a case. We are watching and waiting for any info!! Its time for his TRUE story to be told.
 
Soccerfan I think you are very close to the truth.....I to think a boat was used. You can hide a body under a tarp in a boat easily. No one sees inside really and would not question a tarp...or possibly a cover for the boat when not is use to disguise a body?

I think they could have "held" the body somewhere also until they could dump it.

Now who is physically able to commit this crime and who has a motive? Shouldn't be hard to figure out with "the new sheriff" in town!
 
I've waffled back and forth between murder and suicide. I eventually came to the conclusion, in my mind, this was a well planned suicide. He wanted to make it look suspicious, possibly to protect the life insurance payout? Maybe to get even with someone? Maybe he didn't want his family to think he committed suicide? It's hard to say what he might have been thinking. Sheriff Meeks said early on that there was reason to believe this was suicide. To my knowledge, that was never explained. Was there a note found? Had he threatened suicide before? We don't know. His only known trip was to Walmart that day. On both the trip there, and back, he pulled over in the general area of where he was later found. This is not likely a coincidence. Perhaps he had already decided on the place and was trying to work up the courage? Or talk himself out of it? Nothing missing from his house, so no obvious robbery. Possibly coagulated blood belonging to Mr. Chambers, this has always perplexed me. If murder, why not clean it up? If planned suicide, what was the purpose of leaving it, to throw investigators off the trail? Everything left behind but the bike, drivers license (possibly to help identify his remains, if found?), and phone. Why would he take the phone? Was he trying to lead someone to his body? The phone pings indicate that someone rode the bike from the house to the bridge, at which time the phone stops pinging. No one can put Mr. Chambers on that bike, but there are apparently no witnesses or video to prove that it was anyone else. Seems hard to believe that a 70ish man with bad knees could have made the trip, but it's certainly not impossible. Someone rode that bike, and the fact that it was found with his remains makes me believe it was him. It will be interesting to find out if anything else was found in the area of his remains. Maybe the final report will clear up the lingering questions. Hope this family will finally be able to have some closure.
 
I've waffled back and forth between murder and suicide. I eventually came to the conclusion, in my mind, this was a well planned suicide. He wanted to make it look suspicious, possibly to protect the life insurance payout? Maybe to get even with someone? Maybe he didn't want his family to think he committed suicide? It's hard to say what he might have been thinking. Sheriff Meeks said early on that there was reason to believe this was suicide. To my knowledge, that was never explained. Was there a note found? Had he threatened suicide before? We don't know. His only known trip was to Walmart that day. On both the trip there, and back, he pulled over in the general area of where he was later found. This is not likely a coincidence. Perhaps he had already decided on the place and was trying to work up the courage? Or talk himself out of it? Nothing missing from his house, so no obvious robbery. Possibly coagulated blood belonging to Mr. Chambers, this has always perplexed me. If murder, why not clean it up? If planned suicide, what was the purpose of leaving it, to throw investigators off the trail? Everything left behind but the bike, drivers license (possibly to help identify his remains, if found?), and phone. Why would he take the phone? Was he trying to lead someone to his body? The phone pings indicate that someone rode the bike from the house to the bridge, at which time the phone stops pinging. No one can put Mr. Chambers on that bike, but there are apparently no witnesses or video to prove that it was anyone else. Seems hard to believe that a 70ish man with bad knees could have made the trip, but it's certainly not impossible. Someone rode that bike, and the fact that it was found with his remains makes me believe it was him. It will be interesting to find out if anything else was found in the area of his remains. Maybe the final report will clear up the lingering questions. Hope this family will finally be able to have some closure.
Hi alp122664. I too once believed in the suicide theory but I respectfully disagree. You raise a lot of good questions. I will try to explain why it was likely not suicide, in my opinion:
1. Phone pings: I don't think they indicate that "someone rode the bike from the house to the bridge." I believe that the phone pings only indicate that the PHONE traveled from the house to the bridge. That's a key distinction.
2. If murder, why not clean it up?: I believe it's a timing thing. I don't think the people who were involved expected there to be blood and there simply was not enough time. The other evidence to support the idea that there was not enough time was the fact that the bloody dowel was left behind. They forgot it.
3. "Reason to believe it was suicide": You mentioned that Sheriff Meeks indicated that there "was reason to believe it was suicide." I suspect that that information came from someone who knew Mr. Chambers well and wanted the Sheriff's Office to think it was suicide. The question is why that person wanted the Sheriff's Office to think it was suicide. One possibility is that the planting of the suicide story with the Sheriff might be part of a larger plan.
4. Well-planned suicide: If it was a well-planned suicide in order to protect a pension (not life insurance) payout, his plan was too good. If he concocted this plan, it might have been too good; meaning, the blood drops and the bloody dowel have caused many to suspect that this was murder. If you are charged with homicide, you are likely not getting a pension payout. Also, if Mr. Chambers planned this out, he would have known how long it would have taken for him to be declared dead. He had no way of knowing that he would be declared dead (without a body) two months after he went missing.
5. The bike ride: If he was going 4.2 mph on the bike (what Meeks said), it would have taken him roughly 3 hours (or longer) to get to his location. How come no one saw him? Sheriff Meeks said they looked at cameras on the route and no camera picked him up. Did any driver see him on the shoulder-less roads? Reportedly, no. Also, try riding a bike at 4.2 mph. It's impossible. Either the cell phone data is wrong or perhaps he was not on a bike. Admittedly, the 4.2 mph could be an average; we just don't know.

I agree with you on the final report comment. We just don't know. I get why some believe in the suicide theory but I'm just not there. You do raise a really important point though about the trip to the other side of Lake Tawakoni. This has always bothered me too. In the episode, Sheriff Meeks mentioned that, in the morning, Chambers went through Quinlan to the other side of Lake Tawakoni where he stayed for 10-15 minutes (the episode shows him sitting in a parking lot near the lake) and then went back to that same location around 2:30pm. The 2:30pm one fits with the murder theory, in my opinion. Was the morning trip to the other side of the lake part of an elaborate scheme so that cellphone data showed he was there before, which raises suspicions and general connections to the area he might eventually be located? Was there a request that he come to that location to meet someone (but that person never showed up)? Who knows, but it is a mystery.
 
I'm glad he was found and figured this had to be him, but will continue to follow. Nothing I've seen has indicated if a weapon was found in the area or if forensics were able to determine if one was used. This Ex-local never believed the bike/suicide story and furthermore, the lake does not have a current pattern that would wash both the body and bike up in the same area. If he had ridden the bike there, he would have needed to cut across private property with a bike in wooded sometimes swampy terrain with a bad knee to get to the site where he was found. So as some have suggested, a boat could have been used to transport him unless whoever did this knew the property owners. Very sad. I'm curious to see how some of the family members react with his body being identified which may provide telltale hints. Mike Chambers deserves a beautiful memorial ceremony which gives the family partial closure and this is a start until the family can get full closure. My prayers to them.
 
I went back and watched the Dissappeared episode again and most of the parking lot shots they show of Lake Tawakoni are from the boat ramp areas that are on the East Tawakoni side of the 2 Mile bridge.
I think the bridge is irrelevant here because after you cross it and enter Rains County, you still have to go 4 more miles down 276 to be near where his remains were found.
The property it shows them searching at the end has no real identifying markers, just a no trespassing sign on the gate and it looked like it was next to a highway, but I'm not sure if it was 276. So I can't tell where this property is in relation to where his remains were found.

What I do know about that area is there are a handful of RV parks and private community or private cove areas (Cedar Cove Landing, Thousands Trails, etc.) on the lake that have their own private boat ramps and lots of piers/boat docks. If he decided to ride his bike off one of these, the location his remains were found in starts to make a bit more sense.
Still, the entire journey is a long way to travel via bicycle in the middle of the day and no one notices you.
 
I read all of these threads over the last few days. I saw it had been recently commented on and hadn’t heard about this case. The emotional toll it took on me was unexpected. Reading everything at once was just really confusing and heavy. It appears tons of posts were deleted as some threads only had 20-30 pages. I wonder what I missed by not seeing those.

MC sounded like an all around great guy and family man. It really did feel like he was our papaw too. I never had a man like papaw in my family so this really devastated me, knowing how special he was, how loved he was and how important he was to so many.

I am so sad that this happened, I can’t imagine what the family has been and is going through. Being found with a bike is just throwing me off, what happened to him? How did this happen? I so wish there were answers. I do hope his family can come together (if they haven’t) and begin to heal.

There is very little info in MSM. Will they ever release more info? With a new sheriff, will things keep moving? I hope so.

Oh papaw. May he rest in peace.
 

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