Paul Blankenship

On the night of August 28, 1981 Paul Richard Blankenship left the Montgomery General Hospital in Montgomery, West Virginia. He had been admitted three days previous for a liver disorder, a toothache, and general detoxification. Paul was still fighting a years-long battle with alcoholism and checked himself out of the hospital Against Medical Advice (AMA) A short time after leaving the hospital Paul Blankenship disappeared. On the afternoon of Wednesday September 2, 1981, his body was found floating face-down in the Kanawha River about one block west of the hospital. It was obvious the Medical Examiner that Paul had died of drowning, but just how he had come to be in the Kanawha River in the first place has confounded authorities for 38 years.