Jamie and I hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas.
It’s great doing business with Members Choice Credit Union (MCCU) in Greenville. Everybody is so friendly.
A recent item put on Facebook showed the only male employee, Jeremy Giesseman, at his teller seat and the following wordage underneath: “These photos below were part of our ‘Crime Scene’ at the credit union dinner party/murder mystery recently. Unfortunately, our beloved Jeremy was ‘murdered,’ but it was all in good fun! Don’t worry; Jeremy is safe and sound and ready to see you next time you come in.”
That was followed by “Can you figure out who the guilty fellow employee was, and readers were to post their answers for fun.
And, wouldn’t you know it? The next time I went into MCCU, Jeremy was the one who took care of me. I had to be nosy and ask about the event.
Jeremy, who has been with MCCU since August 2013, began to tell me what transpired, so I made plans to meet with him a few days later to get the whole story. You see, he is the one who wrote the murder mystery, which took place on Nov. 29 at the financial institution, with all of his co-workers making up the cast.
His co-workers are CEO/President Tina Brooks, G. Lynne Myers, Kennedy Pothast, Dawn Harrison, Trucy Matthew, Skyler Sierer, and Kelly Spahr.
He said the staff had been debating what to do in October for their year-end annual get-together.
He is the one who mentioned a murder mystery, and it evolved from there.
Even though he wanted the characters to be in 1920s garb, they opted not to. But the show still went on.
From there, he researched the era a little bit for knowledge in working on his production.
Jeremy named his mystery “The Red Estate,” and he gave everyone the last name of a color, just like they do in the game Clue.
“I was Jay Red, the club owner,” said Jeremy, who himself was the victim of the murder.
However, he noted that all of the castmates had a reason for wanting him dead.
He describes what went on: “Tina was Lovely Blue, whose motive was that I had her husband (my business partner) killed and was going to take sole ownership of the club. Kennedy was Penelope Purple, a mob boss whose motive was I would not pay her the rest of the money I owed her for killing my business partner. Lynne was Bruno Orange, a bouncer, and she had worked for the Kennedy character. Kelly was K-swift (Kelsey) Black, and she was the entertainer/singer. Her motive was that she was my older sister, who was given up for adoption and wanted to take over the inheritance of our parents. Skyler was Skylar Green, the bartender, whose motive was that I was cutting the wages of the employees. Dawn was Scarlet Pink, whose motive was to kill her secret lover (my business partner/Tina’s husband), and she was the sister to Tina’s character. And Trudy was Jamie Yellow, the waitress, and her motive was I crushed her dreams of being a singer when she auditioned. She wanted to become a performer/singer, so she had an appointment for an audition, but I turned her down, and she wanted revenge.”
Apparently, more people thought the culprit was Dawn Harrison, but come to find out, it was Trudy Matthew, who slipped something in his drink after the lights went out.
Dawn did solve the crime, though.
“Jeremy did a really good job,” said Tina Brooks. “I haven’t laughed so much at one of our little end-of-year appreciations. We had food catered in from Outback Steakouse. We sat down and ate, and enjoyed 30 minutes, and thought, ‘Let’s do this.'”
MCCU’s back rooms served as the stage for what was to resemble a club from the 1920s.
Jeremy said he has never written a story before.
“It wrote itself in my head,” said Jeremy, a 2010 graduate of Greenville High School of which he was a member of the ROTC. “I sat down the day of and wrote out all of the clues. I just chalk it all up to my child-like mind giving me a good imagination,” he said. “I may do one next year for it. I want to make it grander.”
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Jamie and I extend our condolences to the families and friends of Sharon Wright, Jamie Menger, Jim Lecklider, Alan Gessler, Jack Runner, Lowell L. Brinley, and Mary Ayette Fisher.
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Please pray for these people: Kara Didier, Cindy Lovejoy, Carl Francis, Janet and Troy Kammer, Bob Peters, Phyllis Brumbaugh, Sonny Custer, Betty Burnfield, Dan Lockhart, Roberta Hall, Pam Norman-Penticuff, Kelly Kelch, Mike Mayse, Greg Moody, Kelly Jo Eikenberry (kidney transplant) and son Allen (donor), Larry Linder, Steve Waymire, Jamie Knick, Nikole Baldridge, Chester Bryant, Lester Beisner, Delores Beisner, Kermit Foureman, Chuck “C.W.” Cruze, Mark Lovejoy.
Also, Judy York, Donald Booker, Dennis Leeper, Connie Stachler, Randy Heck, Ronnie Norton, Jeremy “Jerm” Burke, Gary Eichler, David Pretzman, Clinton Randall, Ralph Byrd, Doug Winger, Sonja and Dan Coppess, Bruce Kaiser, Amanda Mote, Gary Francis, Paul Gigandet, Doug Whittington, Tracy Pratt, D’Arleen Waymire, Zach Urbancic, John Rimmer, Joan Keen, Carol Hemmerich, Larry P. Fitzwater, Jim Thomas, Neal Gray, Judie Hathaway, Randy Garrison, Jannie Barrow, Kathy Gragorace, Becky Everhart, Donna Bixler, Linda Subler, Cathy Melling, Scott Clark, and all of those who are suffering from other life-altering illnesses.
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Happy birthday:
Dec. 29 to Betty Burnfield, Brad Slyder, Bruce Hetzler, Rick Saunders, Mary Kell, Heather Midlam, and Lori Conner Riffell.
Dec. 30 to Monica Beisner, Caitlin Moody Hileman, Stacy Barnt, Kylee Freeman, Trevor Hemmerich, Christa Bonfiglio, Brooke Neal, Craig Prenger, Alena Flory, Keith Burk and Sis Prager.
Dec. 31 to Dennis Moody, Chad Wagner, Justin Wilson, Amber Neal, Robert Foster, Mary Ann Grilliot and Donna Bixler.
Jan. 1 to Seth Phillippi, Paula Harbison, Rick Price, and Ted Liette.
Jan. 2 to Shirley Phillippi, Ron Gard, Karie Stickley, Jerry Miller, Brooke Hilderbrand, and Stacy Gibson.
Jan. 3 to Jamie Wisner, David Scanlon, Mike Lawson, Linda Alexander Brown, Travis Henderson, Kendra Billenstein, Katie Custer Rehmert,Teresa Shinn, Scott Rodeheffer and Matt Louis.
Jan. 4 to Dennis Riffell, Kevin Metzcar, Elizabeth Horner, Jodi Neff, Taylor Thwaits, Edna Fourman, Jon Hein and Dick Lavy.
Happy anniversary to Steve and Christa Bonfiglio on Dec. 30.
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