The Man Who Died 3 Times

The bizarre disappearance of Thomas P. Meehan is still a mystery. How could he appear in three different locations, after perishing in a watery grave? On the evening of February 1, 1963, Thomas Meehan was driving home to his wife and four children.

He was a lawyer at the California Department of Employment. When unemployment benefits were denied and the jobless chose to appeal, it was Meehan's job to hear evidence and to rule on that appeal... until he went missing. Disappearances typically happen only once. However Thomas Meehan appeared and disappeared three times on the same night.

On the evening of February 1, 1963, Thomas Meehan was driving home from a distant work assignment in Eureka, California. He was heading to Concord, near San Fransisco, where he lived with his wife Florence, and their four children. When still more than four hours from home, he stopped at a pay phone. It was six PM and he called Florence to tell her he was feeling ill. His wife told him to stop at a motel and get some rest, and to finish driving home the next morning.

His car was a new Chevrolet convertible. It was only thirty minutes later that it was seen by two witnesses as it veered off Highway 101, where the road parallels the Eel River. It was swallowed by brush as it plunged down the embankment. The police were called and the California Highway Patrol arrived to investigate the accident scene.

All the window glass was smashed out and the convertible top of the vehicle was torn off. However the steering column showed no sign of impact. The steering wheel was not bent, and the horn was not crushed. A pair of neatly folded eyeglasses was found resting in the passenger seat. The authorities thought it likely that the driver was thrown from the car, or may even have walked away unharmed. Then footprints were found nearby, starting from the muddy bank of the Eel River and leading straight up the embankment, for ten yards. Then the footprints ended abruptly before reaching the road, as if Thomas Meehan had vanished.

Also at 6:30 PM, at the same time that his Chevrolet was seen plummeting off the shoulder of Route 101, Thomas Meehan showed up at a nearby hospital in Garberville. One of the nurses in the Emergency Room took his insurance information. The nurse said the man was disoriented and he kept asking if he was dead. He questioned her. He said, "Do I look dead to you?" By the time a physician was ready to look him over, Meehan was nowhere to be found, disappearing for the second time that Friday night.

Next at eight o'clock that evening, Thomas Meehan walked into the lobby, of the Forty Winks Motel in Redway, many miles from the hospital and even farther from the scene of the accident. He had a long conversation with the proprietor Chip Nunnemaker, who was also part owner of the Redway rodeo. Chip said the man did look normal, but did notice that the bottom cuffs of Meehan's pants were wet, and that his shoes made squishing noises when he walked. Nunnemaker questioned about that but the man did not directly answer. Instead he asked the motel owner, "Do I seem dead to you? I feel like I'm dead."

Later that night, the motel switchboard operator visited Meehan's room, to notify him that the phone lines must be down in Concord, and that a call to his wife would be impossible. According to the witness, although Meehan had not checked in with any luggage, he was wearing a change of clothes, now appearing in a formal black suit with a white shirt and a black tie, almost as if he was about to attend a wedding... or a funeral. Finally, the lawyer disappeared for the third time. He never checked out of the motel.

Nineteen days later the lifeless body of the forty-one year-old man was fished out of the Eel River.

Thomas Meehan was a prominent, sober member of his community, a member of the board of directors of his local hospital. He was such an important figure that his home town Police Inspector, Carl Vicknar, drove hours from Concord to join the manhunt for the missing man, with twenty-four other law enforcement officers. But the authorities still had no explanation as to how Meehan had occupied his physical body three times... after he had already drowned in frigid river waters.