WABASH CO. – A hard-drinking Mount Carmel man with a lengthy criminal history and a questionable public association with Allendale’s Tarpy/Davis meth family was discovered drowned to death in the late afternoon hours of Monday, July 15.
Joe Walter II, 37, had apparently been seen fishing earlier that afternoon at the farm pond near the home of his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Melissa Simpson, whose own Facebook friend’s list is dripping with multiple felons and dope cooks alike. A pair of juveniles, whose identities are being withheld, made the discovery of the body at the pond.
At 5:34 p.m. Wabash County Sheriff’s Department and dive team were dispatched to Simpson’s residence at 5192 Highway 15, just west of Mount Carmel, in response to a 911 call reporting a possible drowning. It is unknown at the moment who dialed 911, as Walter’s death is still under investigation by authorities.
Sheriff Joe Keeling informed Disclosure staff that Walter’s body was submerged and unseen when authorities arrived.
“I’ve heard all kinds of rumors that Joe drowned in three feet of water,” Keeling stated before assuring Disclosure that this was in no way true. “That pond has really steep, seven-foot-deep banks,” cited Keeling. The sheriff went on to say that Walter’s body was retrieved by dive team members from the depths of the pond, just below where his fishing pole was discovered; presumably in the same spot he left it at the time of his death.
Although Walter’s body is reported to have been retrieved from under seven feet of water by the dive team, Keeling told Disclosure that the juveniles had made the discovery. The sheriff was unable to disclose just how the juveniles happened to find Walter’s submerged body. “That information is still part of the ongoing investigation,” Keeling said.
“We investigate every death in Wabash County like a homicide… until we know for sure that it wasn’t,” Keeling stated.
Wabash County Coroner Larry Hodgson expects to release his final report on Walter’s death after toxicology reports come back in six to eight weeks.
“It appears to be an apparent accidental drowning… pending toxicology reports,” Hodgson reported to Disclosure staff on Wednesday, July 18.
The toxicology reports could definitely shed some light into Walter’s drowning, as his name is pretty infamous with local authorities. His excessive consumption of alcohol seemed to be the root of most of his legal woes. This past February he picked up an intoxicated pedestrian citation in Mt. Carmel. This ticket is small potatoes compared to some of the other things Joe was carrying around on his record. In 2003 he was hung up in neighboring Edwards County for possession of a firearm by a felon. Mr. Walter then proceeded to violate an order of protection back at home in Wabash County only three short days after Edwards County authorities gave him the felony firearm charge. Among his other legal troubles: felony driving after revocation and criminal trespass to property.
Perhaps an explanation for Mr. Walter’s checkered past and tragic demise might exist in a forgotten drawer somewhere at the Wabash County Circuit Clerk’s office in a dusty old folder marked 2000CF41. While the felony charges Mr. Walter might have faced back in 2000 may never have been placed on the state’s court website, Judici, his plea to the unknown charge is indeed available online…
Not guilty/Insanity
More will be made available on this matter in upcoming issues, and as the toxicology report becomes public.