Aug. 22, 2002: reporter Allen Myerson falls to his death, an apparent suicide. No evidence of foul play; but the event is strange, and his investigative reporting (sewage sludge dumping, Enron, etc.) could have made any number of powerful enemies.

Texas Press reports –

Allen R. MyersonAllen Myerson, 47, died Aug. 22, 2002 after falling from the 11th floor of The New York Times building and landing on the roof of a parking garage.

He was assistant business editor/weekends for the Times. Police said the death was an apparent suicide. Myerson joined the Times in 1989. Before that he was a reporter for several years at The Dallas Morning News.

[Link]

NewWatch India observes –

Allen Myerson, 47, was a staffer at the paper, an assistant business and financial editor, and he landed on the roof of a parking garage next door. That’s where police found him. Dead — an apparent suicide.

The next day’s obits ranged from a respectful one in the Times — declaring that Myerson “fell from a parapet above the 15th floor” and that the preliminary police finding was suicide — to the New York Post’s play-by-play of the moments before death and exposure of the editor’s marital and financial difficulties.

[Link]

Lisa DePaulo: Justice for Allen –

When Allen Myerson jumped from the fifteenth floor of the New York Times building, it wasn’t just the tragic end to a respected editor’s life. It was the beginning of a ferocious battle between his estranged wife and the sisters who accuse her of “murdering” him.

[New York Metro: Link]

Paul Kienitz: unnerved by Allen Myerson’s death –

Now this scares me a bit. A New York Times business editor, Allen Myerson, fell to his death four days ago. The police are treating it as a possible suicide — but nobody knows how he fell. He used to work for the Dallas Morning News. This scares me a bit because Myerson specialized in energy industry stories and Enron news, just as I am doing here…

[Enron & Friends: Link]