GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) - Mike Mecklenburg was a great conversationalist who loved meeting people.
So much so that after ending an advertising career in New York City and moving to Greenville to be closer to family, he not only immersed himself in civic affairs, but he picked up a part-time gig driving for Uber.
He was a night owl who loved Greenville, helping others and taking the road less traveled - traits well-suited for a driver for the popular ride-sharing service.
But it was that odd job that led him to Power Street, a dead-end road in the City View area, in the early hours of April 14, 2017. There, he was shot and killed minutes after dropping off his last rider for the night.
A year later, the shooting death - one of 27 in Greenville County last year - is still unsolved. His family, colleagues and neighbors are still feeling the void, still seeking answers.
Despite leads trickling in to the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, none have been fruitful, leaving the case as one of five unsolved homicides from 2017. The investigation has not gotten much further than where it was in the first few days of the killing, said Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Ryan Flood.
“The leads so far have all been dead-end leads,” he said.
Family members and friends are puzzled as to how a man described as neighborly, civic-minded intellectual could be slain in such a way and stripped from the Greenville community so suddenly.
“Mike was a very independent, free-thinking person,” said Will Mecklenburg, Mike Mecklenburg’s brother. “He just loved engaging. He’d rarely have an incident with anyone.”
Will Mecklenburg reflected on the loss of his brother in his home this week on the anniversary of the killing.
“I think the loss of my brother is affecting me more now and will continue to affect me more now as I have more time to process it.”
A passion for preservation
Mecklenburg, 59, was best known in Greenville for serving on the city’s Design Review Board. The Earle Street resident cared deeply about history, architecture, preservation and people. He understood how a small mill home had just as much historic importance as a large, iconic public facility, City Councilwoman Amy Ryberg Doyle said.
He was in the fourth year of his first term on the board and would be the first person to head-up a committee, review an ordinance or weigh in on a project, Doyle said.
“He was a great listener,” Doyle said of Mike Mecklenburg, who moved to Greenville in 2005. “He was very non-pretentious and self-effacing. He laughed at himself at the fact that he was so frank with everyone. He wasn’t a rubber stamp at all. He challenged some of the things we were doing, and I appreciated his forthrightness.”
Doyle said Mike Mecklenburg enjoyed his Uber driving as a means to simply converse with others.
“He drove someone to Clemson who was speaking at Clemson University and they ended up spending an extra 30 minutes in the car just discussing contemporary architecture,” Doyle said.
Will Mecklenburg said local developers would often come to Mike Mecklenburg before bringing a proposal to the city.
“He got onto the Design Review Board and initially he learned a lot from his neighbors,” Will Mecklenburg said. “Initially, he fought the wrong battles in his neighborhood and then learned what a nice balance was for here in Greenville. You can’t save everything and not everything can be his way, so he was actually really good about finding common group. And it was wasn’t about his ego. It was about his point of view and his perspective on historic preservation.”
What happened
Mike Mecklenburg had just dropped off his last Uber rider around 3 a.m. April 14, 2017, when he was struck by a single bullet in the back of the head.
A Coroner’s Office report obtained by The Greenville News states that Mike Mecklenburg was in his vehicle when he was shot. His driver’s side window was down and his driver’s side rear window had been shattered. A bullet fragment was taken from his hair.
Authorities arrived on scene to find that he had struck a parked car and a tree before his vehicle came to a rest.
Investigative leads have ruled out the possibility of it being an Uber rider, but there were no known eyewitnesses, so details outside of that are murky, Will Mecklenburg said.
“During the course of the investigation, investigators worked around the clock and conducted numerous interviews and followed every lead that came in,” Flood said. “They interviewed the customer who Mecklenburg had just dropped off, and nothing indicated that the customer was involved.”
Stephanie Burnette, one of Mike Mecklenburg’s neighbors, said she still looks outside and expects to see him walking one of his dogs, both of which Will Mecklenburg now has in his care.
“For his family’s sake and all the people that loved him, we all want to be able to close the chapter and at least know a little bit more about what happened that night,” Burnette said.
A fitting tribute
To honor Mike Mecklenburg, a mural is planned on Stone Avenue later this year.
The mural is the next piece in a series of murals through the Stone Mural Project, a public art partnership between the city of Greenville, Stone Academy and local artists.
Mike Mecklenburg was an artist himself. His paintings of landscapes and architecture were mainly in watercolor and oils. His family holds onto most of them, cataloging what he’s left behind.
On the Design Review Board’s neighborhood panel, Mike Mecklenburg was instrumental in drafting the city’s Stone Avenue Master Plan, making the dedicated mural more fitting there.
One of Mike Mecklenburg’s neighbors, Michelle Jardines, who is also one of this year’s “Emerging Festival Artists” for Greenville’s Artisphere, will paint the mural, said Burnette, chair of the Stone Mural Project.
“Here’s someone who directly knew him,” Burnette said. “The thing about living in old neighborhoods, with streets with sidewalks with a grass area between the road and the sidewalk is that those streets become places of community where people really walk their dogs and push strollers because they’re safe. There’s a big gap on our street now.”
Inside Will Mecklenburg’s home on Mountainview Avenue, colorful drawings and plastic toys are reminders that children are missing their uncle. Will Mecklenburg said his brother frequently came to his children’s classes at Stone Academy to read and would often accompany them on family trips.
“Mike was ever-present in our family,” he said.
A plea for answers
Crime Stoppers is offering a $2,000 reward for tips that lead to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Mike Mecklenburg’s death. The family is also offering an additional $15,000 reward.
Doyle, the city councilwoman, said she met with the Sheriff’s Office recently to ask for an update on the case and was made aware that investigators are still active.
“It’s tragic that they have not closed the case and given the family some peace,” Doyle said. “People ask me every week, ’How is the case going?’”
Investigators continue to seek input from the public and are asking those with information to call Crime Stoppers of Greenville at 23-CRIME.
“We need people to come forward with whatever they might know,” Flood said. “Even if the individual feels that their information is minimal, it can be a real game changer for our investigators.”
Will Mecklenburg said he may never fully know what happened.
“It will always kind of bother me in the back of my head, but I’ll also be at peace knowing he didn’t do anything to deserve this,” Will Mecklenburg said. “He didn’t do anything to cause this, and so no matter what comes, I just would hope no one else has to go through this kind of loss.”
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