Clayton’s Unsolved Murder

Ernie Braiser was murdered at his office in downtown Clayton in 2006. His murder remains the only unsolved murder in Clayton in recent history.

It 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

liked to go out into the backyard and shoot it. The police went to the neighbor he was talking about and the neighbor said they never shot guns off together,” said Holtmeier.

Ballistics testing was done on Venker’s gun according to Chief Smith, but the results were inconclusive.

Before Ernie was murdered, he confronted Venker about his noticeable issues with alcohol, telling him that the secretaries could smell alcohol on him in the morning and then again in the afternoon.

“I think drinking at that level, drinking can really do something to you,” said Pat Holtmeier. Ernie had also walked in on Venker shaving his face in the bathroom sink at work. Meixler remembers him shaking his head in bewilderment at the exchange.

“He (Ernie) told me he was surprised at how unprofessional Vince was behaving,” said Meixler.

Holtmeier is confident it was Vince who killed her husband.

“My attorney feels that he killed Ernie because he was afraid he was going to lose his job again. His wife was divorcing him after Christmas. Everything was coming down on him. He is the assumed one, but they’re always going to call the case unsolved,” said Holtmeier.

In the police report, Holtmeier also learned Venker took a Computer Voice Stress Analyzer test while in police custody and refused to take another one.

“They found a notebook where he was writing ‘I said this…’ and ‘the Clayton Police said that…’. It was like he was trying the case in his mind. He was an attorney after all, and he knew how to get out of things,” said Holtmeier.

Before his murder, Ernie told Holtmeier that he or Venker were going to be awarded the Fireman’s Fund account which meant that the person awarded with this new account was going to get a raise and it would have been less work. Holtmeier believes that this was Venker’s final straw.

“One day I came home from work and there were 12 long stem red roses, meaning he (Ernie) got it. I think putting all this together maybe he (Vince) did get in a rage and between his wife leaving him and thinking Ernie was going to make him lose his job,” said Holtmeier.

Meixler felt that Boggs made investigating Ernie’s murder more difficult, “She made sure everything was locked tight, hiring Scott Rosenblum, a criminal defense attorney, so none of the firm’s attorneys would speak to the Police without her representation. Beth Boggs avoided a PR nightmare, but is she guilty? Only her, God, and Vince know what’s up,” Meixler said.

Frustrated with the lack of justice being served to her father, Meixler wonders why Venker was never charged.

“If you read the police files, the police had a thick stack on him (Venker) but nobody else. Was there damage to evidence? Was the crime scene contaminated? How did a bullet to the head get missed and confused as a heart attack? There is a reason they never indicted,” said Meixler.

Brasier’s death was pronounced a heart attack at the scene and there were roughly two and a half hours before it was ruled a homicide according to Chief Smith.

The Clayton Police Department is unaware of any damages to the crime scene or any evidence.

“I checked with other investigators who worked on this case and they were also unaware of damages to any evidence,” Chief Smith said. However, Meixler still believes the police department could have done more.

The murder of Ernie Braiser is now considered a cold case. However, according to Chief Smith the case, as well as other cold cases in Clayton are looked at on an annual basis to determine if there are any new leads or evidence that can be submitted for DNA testing.

Smith also points out that retired detectives have looked at the case but also came back with no new leads. Over 25 investigators from the Major Case Squad worked on the investigation for two weeks following Ernie’s murder.

“A lot of time and effort was put into following leads and interviewing people associated with Ernie and the law firm. We were all disappointed that we could not bring closure to this case. There just wasn’t any direct evidence to obtain an indictment on anyone,” said Chief Smith.

“He was a wonderful father and a wonderful husband. He always put us above himself,” Holtmeier said. “Other lawyers in the area called me after this happened and told me he was just a true gentleman and he was always respectful.”

It’s been 16 years since Ernie’s murder and Ernie’s family is still waiting for justice to be served. “I have turned my grief at his loss into gratitude for his presence,” said Meixler.

Ernie Braiser and his daughter Kelly Meixler.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY PAT HOLTMEIER