DEL.ICIO.USThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/18/08
Kathleen Adams and Joe Ingram have spent the last three years suspended between a truth they believe and the justice they say they've been denied.
There's been plenty of grief, anger, resentment, pain. And loss.
 Family photo | ||
| Edward Ingram died three years ago while drinking with friends at a Polk County pond. His parents say there are too many unanswered questions surrounding the young man's death. | ||
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In May 2005, they lost their only son to a senseless death as he celebrated his 21st birthday.
Both still can't believe the official version of the story surrounding Edward Ingram's death. Authorities say he drowned in a lake on the grounds of a Cedartown skydiving facility after a night of drunken revelry. The parents blame his drinking companions or the skydiving facility.
They hope to force a resolution with a lawsuit filed last month in Fulton State Court.
"I want someone held accountable for what they did," said Adams, Ingram's mother. "I do want justice for Edward. I don't want them to look at this as just a young man trying to have a good time and then he was dead. There was criminal activity out there. ... I fight every day with it. It's hard."
For the young man's father, a retired Marine, the loss of his son just as he was coming into manhood is particularly bitter — especially under uncertain circumstances.
"I lost my son," Ingram said. "I lost the grandchildren from my son. ... It can overwhelm you. It can put hatred in your heart."
The father said he thinks of Edward "every single day."
"My son's picture is right here in my family room. At least every hour of every day, I'm thinking, 'What if? What if?'"
When the incident happened, Ingram, a graduate of Riverside Military Academy, was home on break from Benedict College in South Carolina, staying with his father in Dunwoody. Adams lives in California.
His body was found floating face down in a Cedartown pond, early on a Saturday morning that Ingram was supposed to spend skydiving.
Polk County police looked into the death and did not file criminal charges. They consider the case closed.
Capt. Michael McGee, who led the investigation, said interviews showed that Ingram and a friend, Warren Cleary III, went to Sky Dive the Farm on a Friday evening and joined several others in hours of heavy drinking. At some point, Ingram passed out, was put on an air mattress and floated out into the small lake. The others there videotaped the stunt.
Both parents believe Ingram drowned as a result of either that catastrophic lapse in judgment by his drinking companions or something worse. They note he was the only black person in the group.
"I believe there was a cover-up," Adams said.
"We are not saying we want [charges of] first-degree murder," the father said. "But you have videotape of them strapping him down and putting him out on the water."
McGee said the participants, including Cleary, said Ingram came back from the raft trip and was left alive and asleep on the pond's edge when they went to bed. One of the others told police he found the body the next morning.
The police captain said there are "some unanswered questions" but nothing that has allowed for criminal charges. "We really didn't find out anything" that contradicted the main story that the man was OK when his companions last saw him and that he drowned later, McGee said.
The parents' suit names as defendants Cleary, several others who where there, Sky Dive The Farm and its operators, Hans and Heidi Paulsen.
Cleary's lawyer, Matthew Ashby, filed a response contending his client did not contribute to Ingram's death. Cleary admitted drinking with Ingram but not much else. Cleary told police Ingram was alive when he fell asleep. Ashby did not return repeated telephone calls and e-mails for this story.
Stephen Dermer, lawyer for Sky Dive, said the event was tragic but his clients have no blame. Hans Paulsen told police he left the facility before midnight while Cleary, Ingram and the others were early into their drinking.
"This appears to be the result of a young man's decision to celebrate his 21st birthday by consuming too much alcohol ... and a bad thing happened," Dermer said. "We are horribly saddened by what happened. But we don't feel like we have any responsibility."
If the official story holds up through the civil case, Ingram and Adams may end their quest with a truth they can't accept. Three years after their son's death, neither is willing to concede he made a terrible mistake and died.
"I hope this lawsuit will result in criminal charges," the father said. "There's got to be something. Up to now, nothing's been done."
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