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Jun 3, 2006
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Jun 3, 2006
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| Online Phonebook | Sandhills Guide | Business News | National News |
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BY JOHN CHAPPELL: Staff Writer The life and contributions of a prominent local attorney are to be celebrated in services today at First Baptist Church, Pinehurst. William Clarence "Bill" Bost, 53, disappeared in mid-April, and an extensive search failed to find him. Family members are virtually certain that a body discovered Thursday was that of Bost. Services were planned even though state medical examiners in Chapel Hill had not yet been able to make positive identification as of Friday. Deputies investigating the discovery had looked for dental records that medical technicians could use for identification, but Bost's were not available. His only known dental records were lost in a fire that destroyed the offices of his dentist. "They were burned up in the Sports Plaza fire a few years ago," said Detective Lt. Richard Talbert. "That is the last dentist he went to, that we know of." Final determination by state examiners might not come through for several days, Moore County Sheriff Lane Carter said late Friday. "It could be Monday," Carter said. Bost's family decided to go ahead with services anyway. Circumstances satisfied them that the mystery of his disappearance had been solved. Bost failed to show up for church on Sunday, April 16. That in itself was unusual. His pastor, David Marks, described Bost as "faithful to the nth degree" -- a man almost always at church on Sunday mornings. His brother, Wayland Bost, started looking for him when he found a tote bag that he said his brother kept with him always, his wallet and two cell phones. He called their mother, but she hadn't seen him. The brothers lived together, but seldom saw each other, according to the Sheriff's Department.
No Medical Condition Deputies started to look for him, with help from the American Red Cross and a State Highway Patrol Helicopter. Search dogs could not detect a scent. Searchers could not find anybody who had seen him. Family members told deputies Bost didn't drink, was on no medication, and had no known medical condition other than hypoglycemia. However, the search proved fruitless until Thursday. That was when a man raking pine-straw happened to look inside an old log cabin-style tobacco barn off Carthage Road near Seven Lakes, not far from where Bill and Wayland Bost lived. Summoned to the scene, deputies entered the old barn to find the partially decomposed body of a man. In his pocket they found a tape recorder. A cassette inside it had Bill Bost's name on it. There was no farewell message on the tape. It wasn't that kind of recording, investigators said. "It was a meditation tape," Talbert said. "There wasn't a voice on it. It was the kind that has sounds like rain and wind for relaxation." With no signs of a struggle found, all indications were that the man's death was self-inflicted. Carter thinks there is little doubt Bost had been found. "We are pretty sure it's him," he said.
Active in Politics Bost had been involved in Democratic Party activities at both state and local levels. In the 1980s, he served as a campaign adviser for former state Sen. Wanda Hunt at the time she won election to the state Senate. Bost worked in many Democratic campaigns, according to Hunt. He was especially good at getting voters to the polls, she said, describing Bost as a spiritual, upright and intelligent person, a man of integrity and honesty. "I can't think of anything bad to say about him," Hunt said in April. "He's just an upstanding person." When she went to the state Senate, he took over her seat on the Moore County Board of Education. A native of Moore County, Bost graduated from Duke, earned his law degree at Campbell, and practiced law here for many years. He married, but survived his late wife Anna Dell. Besides his brother, Bost is survived by his parents, Clarence and Marlene Bost of Pinehurst, and his sister, Emily Bost Lucas of Pinehurst. A lifelong fan of Duke basketball, Bost could name every player the school had had on any team for the past 20 years, according to his pastor, Marks. He said Bost was devoted to the young people in the church, of which he was a charter member and a deacon. After he failed to come to church that Sunday two months ago, church members started looking for him, and praying. "Either that Bill will show up," the pastor said. "Or there would be some type of closure." Today, they will say goodbye and lay him to rest.
Contact John Chappell at jchappell@thepilot.com. |
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