Frank Lewis

PDT Staff Writer

The Scioto County Sheriff’s Office is no longer treating the death of Richard Laack as “suspicious.”

“We received a preliminary ruling from the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office, and results show he most likely died from injuries suffered in a fall,” Scioto County Sheriff’s Captain David Hall said. “So we no longer consider it suspicious.”

The body of Laack, 56, of Portsmouth, was found Friday morning in his yard. He was later pronounced dead at St. Mary’s Hospital in Huntington, W.Va. His death came three days after his son, missing for well over a month, was located alive and well.

James Laack, 35, disappeared from his job on Sept. 24, and his abandoned car was found days later on private property on Scherer’s Hollow Road. That’s when a manhunt by deputies, search dogs, and the Ohio State Highway Patrol helicopter, began.

Last Tuesday, someone spotted Laack walking on Mabert Road, yelled for him to come back, called his friend Matt Humble, to came and picked him up. Humble was also the person who found Richard Laack, unresponsive, on Friday.

The office of Scioto County Coroner, Dr. Darren Adams, had the body sent to Montgomery County for an autopsy. Hall said his office had been in touch with Montgomery County, and the preliminary report that he likely died from an injury suffered in a fall changed the course of the investigation, and that department is no longer looking at it as suspicious.

Graveside services will be held Monday at Memorial Burial Park in Wheelersburg.

Frank Lewis may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 252, or at flewis@heartlandpublications.com.