Peter Meyer’s family and friends want to feel compassion for the 50-year-old Jacksonville woman who killed the Orchid Island winter resident 10 months ago in a hit-and-run accident in Savannah, GA.
But it’s difficult.
Those who knew him – Meyer was a West Point graduate who reached the rank of captain and earned a Bronze Star as an Army Ranger serving in Vietnam before embarking on a successful, three-decade career with Merrill Lynch – were devastated by his tragic, senseless death.
They were heartbroken, too, knowing that a special, still-vibrant, 72-year-old man was gone, cruelly taken from his wife, his daughters, his grandchildren and a long list of friends.
And, yes, they were angry, left with no explanation for their stunning loss and haunted by the memory of his lifeless body lying in some roadside bushes for nearly an hour before it was discovered.
The arrest of Darcia Wilson 10 days ago – an anonymous tip called in to Savannah’s CrimeStoppers hotline led police to an auto-repair shop in Jacksonville – has done little to ease their pain.
“It’s bittersweet,” said Orchid Island resident Pat Walsh, who worked with Meyer at Merrill Lynch and organized the local effort to raise money for a reward that grew to $125,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the driver.
“It’s nice to have closure for the family, but it’s also going to reopen the wounds, so it’s not a joyful occasion,” he added. “I know for me, when I heard about the arrest, I got chills.
“All I could think was: This woman basically left my best friend to die like a dog by the side of the road.”
How could anyone think otherwise?
Even if we assume Wilson wasn’t driving under the influence of any substance – even if there’s some reasonable, lawful explanation for the accident – there’s no excuse for her decision to leave the scene without calling the police.
Surely, Wilson knew she had hit someone.
“Obviously, the way he was thrown, she didn’t graze him,” said Meyer’s daughter, Deb Cohen, a psychologist who lives in Virginia. “She had to know she hit him. My father wasn’t a small man.”
Meyer was, according to Walsh, a sturdily built 6-foot-4, 240 pounds. Wilson was, according to traffic investigators, speeding at the moment of impact. There had to be a thud.
In fact, police found headlight fragments from Wilson’s SUV in the road – evidence that would ultimately provide investigators with the evidence they needed to connect her to the crime.
Yet Wilson didn’t stop, didn’t call the police, didn’t care enough to see if anyone was hurt. She drove on, showing no concern for anyone but herself. And until a couple of weeks ago, she thought she had gotten away with it.
It wasn’t until she took her 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe to a Jacksonville auto-repair shop earlier this month that police finally received the credible lead they were seeking.
“She did the calculation,” Cohen said. “She was 150 miles away and it was 10 months later when she brought her car into the shop to get fixed. She figured nobody would notice.”
Somebody did.
In the weeks following the Jan. 4 accident, which occurred at about 9:30 p.m. as Meyer was waiting to cross Abercorn Street on foot, police studied those headlight fragments and determined he was struck by a red 1999-to-2002 Chevrolet Silverado, Tahoe or Suburban. But they had no suspects.
Cohen and her sister, Sue Ross, kept the story alive by traveling to Savannah for news conferences, placing ads in the local newspaper and offering a reward that grew from $10,000 to $100,000 to $125,000 as Meyer’s former co-workers, military buddies and Orchid Island neighbors contributed to the cause.
“A lot of people just adored my father, and the kindness that has been shown to us has been incredible,” Cohen said. “That includes the lovely people in Vero Beach. It also includes the people in Savannah. They’ve treated us like members of the community. They wanted to see justice served as much as we did.”
The media blitz produced numerous leads, all of which were investigated by Savannah police, but there were no arrests. As the months passed, the family’s hopes of seeing the case solved faded.
Cohen said she and her sister planned to launch another media campaign in January, centered around the anniversary of the accident, but they knew it would be a reach – that too much time has passed, that the driver could be anywhere, that the vehicle might never be found.
“We were going to do something around the anniversary to shake the trees and see if we could get a response,” Cohen said. “Of course, if nothing came of it, it would’ve been another letdown.
“I’m a woman of faith, so I live in a world where anything is possible,” she added. “But I also felt we had done everything we could do. So it was in the hands of a higher power.”
Whatever it was, the fateful call finally came. It led investigators to Jacksonville, where they interviewed Wilson on Nov. 5, searched her red 2002 Chevy Tahoe and collected evidence that was sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for analysis.
Four days later, investigators questioned Wilson again, this time in Savannah, where police say she “confessed to the fatal accident.” She was arrested, charged with one felony count of “leaving the scene of an accident involving injury or death,” and booked into the Chatham County jail.
That same day, Savannah police called Ross, a former Massachusetts prosecutor who now represents victims of domestic violence, and told her they had found the driver who killed her father.
Ross immediately called her sister.
“Ten months after the accident, this was a needle-in-a-haystack quest, so I’m shocked,” Cohen said. “I mean, isn’t everybody? Sure, we knew it was possible, and we never really gave up hope that something would happen. But we knew the more time that went by, the less likely there would be an arrest.
“Maybe the media coverage and the reward money had something to do with it,” she added. “Maybe someone in Jacksonville read something in the newspaper there. We don’t know the identity of the person who called in the tip or why they did it.
“But again, being a person of faith, I think it’s a God thing.”
Being a person of faith, Cohen said she wants to show compassion for Wilson, whom she was told “has had a hard-knocks life.” But the arrest and confession have stirred the sick feelings she experienced in the immediate aftermath of her dad’s death.
“It really has reopened a lot of wounds for us,” Cohen said. “The day after we got the call, I felt physically ill, like I did in January. I felt sad, sedated. A heaviness came over me. There were so many emotions.
“After all these months, to finally hear something … It was hard to get our heads around it,” she added. “This whole thing has been surreal.”
Meyer was driving from his home in Vermont to Orchid Island when he stopped for the night in Savannah. After checking into a hotel, he went to dinner at a restaurant across the street, near the Twelve Oaks Shopping Center.
Police say Meyer was struck by Wilson’s speeding SUV – and knocked into the roadside shrubbery and out of sight – as he was returning to the hotel.
“My father wasn’t a careless man,” Cohen said, dismissing any possibility that Meyer stepped in front of the vehicle that hit him.
As for her mother, Phyllis, who was married to Meyer for 50 years, Cohen said she’s “doing better” and “taking steps to move forward in life,” though it’s unlikely she will spend this winter in their Orchid Island home.
Cohen’s mother didn’t make the trip last winter, in the wake of her high school sweetheart’s death.
“Phyllis always referred to Orchid Island as Pete’s place,” Walsh said, “because he loved coming down here and playing golf.”
“That house is so infused with memories of my father, it’s difficult for all of us,” Cohen said. “It’ll be impossible to be there without feeling his presence. We do want to visit, but it will be difficult, especially for my mother.”
To help their 73-year-old mother get past the tragedy, Cohen and Ross have created their own cookie company – something they discussed during the Christmas holidays last year, only days before their father was killed.
With help from their mom and daughters, they’re baking and decorating sugar cookies. They’re also baking chocolate chip cookies, which were Meyer’s favorite. A portion of the sugar-cookie profits will be donated to charity, while a portion of the chocolate-chip profits will go support veterans groups.
“It’s a way to honor our father and give mom a sense of purpose, and it’s something we all can do together,” Cohen said. “Our father’s life was so significant and influential. By doing this, he can continue to be a force through us.
That’s why, as much as they might want to, it won’t be easy for Meyer’s family and friends to show true compassion to the woman who took his life and took off.
It will be even more difficult for them to grant Wilson the benefit of any doubt as to why – if she did nothing wrong – she didn’t stop to check on Meyer and call the police.
“You can’t hurt innocent people and just drive away, even if you’re on a bad path,” Cohen said.
So Meyer’s daughters will stay in contact with the police and prosecutors in Savannah. The family will follow the legal proceedings against Wilson. Friends will continue to offer support.
“It’s not over, but at least we’re moving closer to getting closure,” Cohen said. “The next few weeks were going to be rough, anyway, with Thanksgiving and Christmas and the anniversary of the accident in January.
“Maybe, knowing that someone is going to be held accountable for our dad’s death and there will be some measure of justice, it’ll be a little easier for all of us.”
