13 FEATURE
Ernie Braiser was murdered at his office in downtown Clayton in 2006. His murder remains the only unsolved murder in Clayton in recent history.
I
t was just six short days away from Christmas in 2006 when Kelly Meixler was out shopping for ingredients to bake Christmas cookies with her friend. In the middle of the baking aisle, she received a call on her cell phone from Beth Boggs, managing partner of Boggs, Boggs, and Bates, a law firm in downtown Clayton. Over the phone, Beth broke the news to Kelly that her Dad had just died of a heart attack. Ernie Brasier, Kelly’s father, was working late that night. He worked at the then Guild Building, now where the 212 building and Peel Wood Fired Pizza are located in downtown Clayton. It wasn’t until later in the evening that Brasier’s death would be ruled a homicide, not a heart attack. After Ernie’s body had been taken to the Medical Examiner’s office, a bullet wound measuring 3mm was discovered behind Brasier’s left ear. As a father of three, Ernie was dedicated to his family, “He really was an amazing father, he took such an active interest in our lives as kids. He made us feel important with how much love and attention he gave us. He was just gentle to be around,” said Meixler. Ernie worked at Boggs, Boggs, and Bates, dealing with workers’ compensation claims for insurance companies. “There was no obvious motive to kill Mr. Brasier. There was no one really mad at him and he wasn’t doing anything too controversial. We really didn’t have anything to go off of initially,” said Clayton Police Chief, Mark Smith. While working at Boggs, Boggs, and Bates, Ernie worked as an attorney under Beth Boggs. “She ruled that place. She was dealing with attorneys, but treated them like children,” said Pat Holtmeier, Ernie’s wife. Meixler also worked at Boggs, Boggs, and Bates now known as Boggs, Avellino, Bach, and Bates for a short period of time along with her Dad. She worked exclusively in billing. “I would come in on Fridays and go to an office where I would set up their online billing systems and went through each of their invoices to make sure that they were all submitted to these online portals that their company Boggs, Boggs and Bates had not yet set up,” she said, “It was kind of that time, in 2006 where people were still figuring out the transition to digital and their company hadn’t. I believe some of those bills I was filling were a couple of years old.”
After finding these old bills, Miexler went to her dad to tell him about her findings. “I just asked him ‘how can they miss out on this much money and run a firm this large?’ Because it was quite a lot of money I was billing each week. I always thought it was weird,” said Meixler. It wasn’t only Meixler who found billing practices suspicious. In 2008, complaints made about Beth’s billing practices were investigated by the Chief Disciplinary Counsel. In a letter of admonition dated March 17th, 2008 addressed to Beth Boggs, managing partner of then Boggs, Boggs and Bates, it states that the Regional Disciplinary Committee met to consider the complaint. “After reviewing all of the available evidence and carefully reviewing the Rules of Professional Conduct, the Committee determined that there is reasonable cause to believe that a violation of a portion of the Rules of Professional Conduct occurred with regard to your billing practices. In particular, the Committee found that you violated Rule 4-8.4 (c) as a result of your billing clients under your name for work done by other attorneys in your office,” stated the letter. Meixler always suspected it was her father who sent the anonymous complaints. Shortly after his death, Holtmeier went back to Ernie’s office. “I just wandered in, it’s funny when you lose someone you love you just want to get close to them.” However, it wasn’t how Ernie left it and the office was all changed. Pat discovered her husband’s office had been converted into storing shoes for a
charity Beth Boggs was involved in. According to Pat, Ernie’s mood changed over the time he worked at Boggs, Boggs, and Bates. “Towards the end of his life he was very quiet. I regret it every day, why didn’t I ask him more? But Ernie kind of kept things close to his chest, he didn’t share everything. Maybe he just didn’t want to bring the bad stuff home,” said Pat Holtmeier, “I look back now and think God he was under so much stress, at that crazy office.” Both Meixler and her mom, Pat, believe that Ernie’s murderer is already dead. They believe his murderer to be Vince Venker. Venker was a co-worker of Ernie’s, and according to Holtmeier’s findings in the Police report, he was the last person to see Ernie alive at the office on the night of Dec. 19. Venker died in August of 2008 from a heart attack. According to the documents relating to the Retention of Household and Other Goods after his divorce, Venker kept possession of a .22 caliber Buffalo gun. A gun small enough to have made the bullet wound behind Brasier’s left ear. “He justified that he had this gun because he and his neighbor
Ernie Braiser and his wife Pat Holtmeier.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY PAT HOLTMEIER
