Cliff-Fall Death Called Hoax : 3 Charged With Faking Accident for Insurance

Charges have been filed against a Pomona couple and a Vista woman in a 3-year-old incident in which the threesome allegedly faked the man’s death and collected $250,000 in life insurance.

Gregory L. Myler Sr.; his wife, Jenness D. Myler, and Janice R. Wiedmeier are implicated in the bizarre turn of events in which Myler’s death was a hoax, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Sullivan said.

Surf Search Never Yielded Body

A drunken Myler supposedly fell 50 feet into the ocean from Sunset Cliffs on Sept. 15, 1985. His body was never recovered despite searches by police, lifeguards, a cliff-rescue unit and a Sheriff’s Department helicopter, according to official reports. The tale received some validity, according to police, because search efforts were hampered by heavy surf and strong rip currents.

But now, San Diego and San Bernardino police have collected information--including testimony from children and neighbors of the supposedly dead man--that leads them to conclude the story was a hoax to collect insurance money.

The new information includes recent photographs obtained from the Myler home, interviews with neighbors who knew the man who lived there and called him Greg, and interviews with the Myler children, ages 16, 14 and 10. Myler’s sister also provided information that indicates Myler is still alive.

“The man was living up north with his wife and children off the insurance money,” Sullivan said.

The district attorney’s office filed a complaint Wednesday in Municipal Court seeking arrest warrants for the Mylers and Wiedmeier. They are charged with one count of conspiracy, five counts of grand theft and four counts of filing false claims for payment of losses under insurance contracts, mortgage insurance and Social Security survivor benefits.

One Suspect Linked to Slaying

Jenness Myler is in police custody in San Bernardino on charges of being an accessory to the murder of Wiedmeier’s boyfriend, Gameial V. Diggs.

Diggs’ body was found in a shallow grave a short distance from a home in Muscoy he once shared with Wiedmeier, the Mylers and their children, Sullivan said.

The break in the case occurred last month when Wiedmeier’s and Diggs’ 2-year-old daughter, Tiffany, was abandoned in San Bernardino with a note from Wiedmeier attached to her, Sullivan said. In the note, Wiedmeier admitted killing Diggs and said she was going to commit suicide. Wiedmeier has not been found and there have been no death reports filed for someone fitting her description, Sullivan said.

San Bernardino police refused comment on the case.

In a declaration filed Wednesday, San Diego Police Detective Harry R. Jourdan said the San Bernardino police homicide unit told him about two weeks ago that the missing-persons case involving Gregory Myler was a fraud.

“San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Bruce McPhail informed me that while conducting an independent investigation, they developed evidence that Gregory Myler was not dead and that an accident previously reported to SDPD by Jenness Myler and Janice Wiedmeier was a hoax to fraudulently collect life insurance,” the declaration said.

About $250,000 in Insurance Collected

Since March, 1986, the suspects have fraudulently collected about $250,000 as a result of the false death report, Sullivan said.

According to Jourdan’s declaration, some of the death benefit checks were sent to Jenness Myler in care of her attorney, Willis E. McAllister Jr. of Upland.

“I definitely represented (Jenness Myler) when she came and told me the story about her husband’s death,” McAllister said in a telephone interview from his office late Thursday. “I’m aghast,” he said. “I’ve long since forgotten about that matter.

“If that woman faked her husband’s death, then she’s got to be a darn good actress. That was the first time I had ever handled that kind of a matter. I guard my professional life too jealously to knowingly become involved in something like an insurance scam.”