Naman Shrestha
Just a day after his birthday, Jack Giles was found dead inside his Jacksonville, Florida, residence in 2002. With the community shaken to its core, his loved ones were taken over by grief and shock all at once. As some suspicious and mysterious circumstances surrounded his demise, the investigators knew they had a challenging task ahead of them. Despite the case being closed, it was looked upon a few years later again by a new set of eyes. The 2002 case of Jack’s death is one of the primary subjects of the episode titled ‘Run, Run, Run’ of ABC’s ’20/20,’ which also consists of exclusive interviews with the victim’s loved ones.
Jack Giles Was Found Dead in His Bed Two Years After His Daughter’s Passing
On April 14, 1956, in Waycross, Georgia, Jack Calloway Giles Sr. and Mattie Mae Polatty Giles welcomed a little bundle of joy into the world in the form of Jack Calloway Giles, Jr. Growing up in the company of his two siblings — a sister named Cindy and a brother named Walter Giles — he attended the Brunswick High School, before relocating to Jacksonville, Florida, with his family in 1975. The University of North Florida graduate was also a devoted Christian who served as a member of North Jacksonville Baptist Church. In 1976, he entered the holy matrimony with Miriam Morgan Giles as the two tied the knot in the presence of their loved ones. In the following years, the couple entered parenthood, giving birth to a son named Chris Giles and a daughter named Amy Michelle Giles.
With so much to look forward to, the Asten Johnson employee received the shock of his life on August 29, 2000, when Amy passed away due to a drug overdose. Her death had a devastating effect on him, and he naturally became depressed. After less than two years, on the fateful day of April 15, 2002, the police received a frantic phone call from his wife, Miriam, who reported that Jack had died in their residence on South Landmark Circle in North Jacksonville, Florida, residence. After the police arrived on the site, they found the 46-year-old man lying dead in the bed he shared with his wife. They inspected the body and looked around the crime scene for any evidence. An autopsy showed that he died of a gunshot wound from a .38-caliber handgun to the head.
Although a Loved One Was Alleged to Have Been Responsible For Jack’s Death, His Case Remains Unsolved
Once the detectives were done gathering potential evidence from the crime scene, they began interviewing his loved ones, hoping to get a clearer picture of the circumstances around which he passed away. When Miriam was brought into questioning, she claimed that her husband, Jack Giles, had shot himself with the handgun that he always kept beside the bed while she was asleep right next to him. She told them that he was still heavily affected by the unexpected death of their daughter in 2000. With everything hinting at suicide, there were some of his loved ones, especially his brother-in-law, who refused to believe that possibility.
About a month later, the investigators officially declared that Jack Giles died of suicide and closed the case. However, a few years down the line, in 2008, when Miriam was the prime suspect in the murder case of her second husband, Alan Helmick, in Colorado, the circumstances and evidence of Jack Giles’ case were looked at once again by the Florida and Colorado authorities. For instance, as the autopsy revealed that the fatal bullet entered his head from the right side, the investigators doubted the claims of suicide as he was strictly left-handed. In light of various pieces of circumstantial evidence against Miriam, the Mesa County prosecutors claimed that she had a hand in killing Jack.
Although his thumb was reportedly found in the trigger guard of the handgun, the prosecutors noticed that the positioning of his thumb was somewhat suspicious. They also found a financial motive behind Miriam’s alleged involvement in the crime as she was the beneficiary for Jack’s life insurance, which he collected soon after he passed away. Over the course of the following few months after his death, she reportedly spent all the money she had received and did not have anything left when the court ordered her to give half of it to one of Jack’s children from a previous relationship. To start afresh, she moved to Colorado, where she met Alan Helmick. Despite the best efforts of the prosecutors to charge Miriam with Jack Giles’ murder, the cause of his death remained suicide due to a lack of incriminating evidence.
Read More: Miriam Helmick: Where is Husband Killer Now?
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