Police are investigating the death of a businessman whose body was found on a vacant lot he co–owned.
The body of Christopher Mayville, 50, of Grace Drive, was found at East 61st and Abercorn streets about 3:30 a.m.
Police say it appears he died of a self–inflicted gunshot wound.
However, detectives later recovered a pistol hidden in a bamboo thicket on a lot.
An autopsy is being conducted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab and a final determination will not be made until it is completed.
An officer spotted Mayville’s Toyota SUV on the lot about 1 a.m. and police began investigating. Family members called police after 2 a.m. to report they had not seen him since 9 a.m. Monday when he usually went to work as a CPA in Garden City.
• Multiple charges have been filed against a Savannah man who rammed two cars with his own, tried to run down a woman and security guards in a mall parking lot and led police on a short pursuit before crashing his car.
Charlton Bynum, 19, of the 1900 block of Price Street was charged with five counts of aggravated assault, felony fleeing to elude, two counts of hit and run, reckless driving, two counts of failure to stop at a stop sign, failure to obey traffic control devices, no valid insurance, failure to maintain lane, switching tags to misrepresent, and expired registration.
He was arrested after officers witnessed him crash into the door of a car as a 23–year–old woman was trying to get out of it and then chase the woman and Savannah Mall security guards around the mall parking lot trying to strike them with his car about 12:24 a.m.
After officers began to pursue him, he ran several stop signs and traffic signals before losing control at Abercorn Street and Rio Road. The Ford Taurus he was driving crashed over the median, knocked down a traffic sign and spun around disabled in the opposite side of the roadway.
Police determined he had been at a party the woman and several friends had attended where she spurned his advances.
The woman is a co–worker who says she has never dated the suspect. She and her friends left and he followed, striking one car with his at DeRenne Avenue and Montgomery Street, running several cars off the road on Middleground Road as he pursued the women to the mall parking lot.
• Police are searching for a man who arranged over the internet to paint cars but instead took the money and sold the cars. Police are looking for David Wayne Harrison, 31, who was identified as the man who offered to paint the cars at discounts.
Officers responded to a call on Sylvania Road where a man reported he had answered a Craigslist advertisement offering to paint cars for $650, paid a man identified as Harrison a deposit and left the car at the residence. When he tried to contact Harrison again, he was unable to get an answer and drove back to ask about the work.
When police arrived, they found the residence vacant and a second man with a similar story. Both victims’ cars were missing. Detectives were able to find three cars Harrison had taken to paint and are seeking two others and Harrison himself.
Missing are a 1993 metallic blue Acura Integra and a 1993 yellow Ford Crown Victoria. One or both of the cars may have been repainted. Harrison is a white male, about 5–foot–7 with brown hair and eyes.
