Obit Declares Man Dead -- Actually, He Is a Fugitive

By: A man claiming to be the brother of a former Springfield bank manager recently submitted an obituary request to The Register-Guard newspaper of Eugene.

The request contained a copy of a United Kingdom death certificate stating that Randy Mainwaring died by suicide in London. Based on the certificate, the newspaper published Mainwaring's obituary on Tuesday.

But Mainwaring, 36, is alive and scheduled to make a public appearance Thursday when he is arraigned in Corvallis on a warrant as a fugitive from Florida, where he faces a charge of first-degree arson.

The arson charge stems from an accusation that Mainwaring set fire to the Florida home of his ex-wife, said Pam Mainwaring, Randy's sister who lives in Eugene.

Less than two months before publishing Mainwaring's obituary, The Register-Guard reported that KeyBank had filed a civil lawsuit against Mainwaring.

The bank, in a complaint filed in Lane County Circuit Court, said it learned that Mainwaring forwarded customer information to his home computer, and used it to create or falsely obtain a birth certificate in the name of a KeyBank customer.

Moreover, the bank alleged that Mainwaring purchased a death certificate in his own name from an unnamed "official in a foreign country," and that he stated in writing "that he intends to fake his own death and re-emerge as this KeyBank customer."

Pam Mainwaring said her brother has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

"He just really needs help, mentally, I think," she told The Register-Guard. "We love him and we want the best for him. But you can't just let people keep doing bad things to other people."

Mainwaring was hired by KeyBank in November, about the same time he failed to appear for arraignment on criminal charges in River County, Fla.

According to documents filed in KeyBank's lawsuit, Mainwaring told the Florida judge he couldn't appear because he was speaking at a financial services conference in Oregon. But he falsified an agenda of the conference to remove a speaker's name and insert his own, according to the documents.

In a June interview with The Register-Guard, Mainwaring said KeyBank's allegations were false. He said the bank retaliated because he complained that a female employee was sexually harassing him. The woman, he said, knew of a "domestic issue" between Mainwaring and his ex-wife in Florida, and blackmailed him into having sex.

Mainwaring's sister said her brother disclosed to family members that he planned to leave the country July 20 to avoid prison. He also told family members that police "would not be looking for him because he would be dead."

The family wasn't sure whether Mainwaring intended to kill himself or to fake his death, she added.

Within a couple of days, the family got a telegram, purportedly from an end-of-life organization in London, stating that Mainwaring had "terminated his life."

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