MEDINA COUNTY, Ohio — For Victoria Macron, it never made sense.
Why would her husband of 23 years, the father of their three children, and a Lafayatte Township Trustee stage an elaborate ruse to make his suicide look like a murder?
"I'm not giving up on him," she told 3News. "[I know] in my heart that what hey told us in the beginning wasn't true."
It's been four years since Bryon Macron disappeared, with his body later being found in Chippewa Lake. Last fall, sheriff's deputies, BCI investigators, and the Medina County prosecutor closed the case and declared there was "no new evidence that other persons were involved in Macron's death." Detectives found staged blood splatter in the township building and non-fatal knife wounds, and left the cause of death "undetermined."
Last month, however, a podcast on Macron's death triggered amateur sleuths, pointing to unknown male DNA found at the scene. The series also fed conspiracy theories that Macron's fellow trustees were involved in some kind of cover-up.
"They send us pictures of gallows, nooses," Trustee Lynda Bowers claimed of those who disagree with the "official" story. "Despite the fact that three law enforcement agencies have looked at this and said that no crime has been committed."
Bowers and fellow Trustee Mike Costello had chosen not to speak out--until now.
"There have been threats of violence, threats of personal harm," Costello said. "Threats that people are watching my every move."
Both trustees created a website called LafayetteFacts.com with links to official reports, and Bowers says she now has extra security. Despite her own doubts about the findings of the investigation, Victoria Macron condemned those who have taken things too far.
"If there [were] death threats, that's uncalled for," she said.
In the aftermath of Bryon's death, past friendships are now fractured, and a widow's grief remains unresolved. And so Victoria, with her husband's memory always by her side, continues to seek truth. But what is it, and who else will listen?
"They're saying Bryon acted alone, but there's no way that Bryon would have done this," Victoria said. "He knows me. He knows I'll never give up on him."