Oxford Eagle, November 5, 2002

One dead, one injured in Avent Park shooting
Pair connected with 2001 Rowan Oak murder

By KELLY SHACKLEFORD
Eagle Staff Writer

Atlanta resident Wenzel Hitzig, whose business partner was murdered last year during a visit to Rowan Oak, was shot dead Monday morning in Avent Park in Oxford.

Hitzig, who was conducting research for a computer game he was developing, was accosted as he was walking along the park's main trail with Arlene Melton of Oxford. Melton, 24, was also shot, sustaining injuries to her arm and shoulder.

Hitzig and Achim Michaelis, business partners in an Atlanta-based computer game company called TINAG, were researching Rowan Oak, home of novelist William Faulkner, as a location for their game when Michaelis was killed in the spring of 2001. Melton, who had been romantically involved with both men, was also involved in development of the computer game.

Both Hitzig and Melton were initially considered suspects in Michaelis' death. After a two-month police investigation, Rowan Oak groundskeeper Cal Swinney confessed to the crime, saying he killed Michaelis when he discovered that Michaelis had seen Swinney murder his wife, Donna, with an ax on the historic property.

Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Department Public Information Officer Elizabeth Jones declined to say whether Hitzig's death Monday was linked with last year's crime, stating, "The evidence, right, now, is completely inconclusive."

According to Jones, initial investigation suggests Hitzig had continued to work on the TINAG project after Michaelis' death, and was apparently in Oxford conducting further research for the computer game, in which players track a serial killer whose crimes occur at famous literary sites around the globe.

Jones said Hitzig and Melton met at 10:30 Monday morning, then drove in Hitzig's car to Avent Park, where they parked in the rear lot. The pair walked along the park's main trail, and Hitzig was using a digital camera to take photographs of Melton, a part-time model and waitress at the Two Stick Cafe.

Jones said Hitzig was allegedly shot from behind as he paused to download the pictures he'd just taken into a laptop computer he was carrying. The perpetrator reportedly tried to steal the computer and camera, Jones said, and shot Melton when she tried to intervene.

Police were called to the scene when Oxford musician Tate Moore overheard shouting and discovered Hitzig and Melton lying in the woods near the trail. Moore called 9-1-1 just after 12 p.m., Jones said.

Melton was taken by ambulance to Oxford General Hospital, where she was treated and released early Monday evening, according to hospital officials. Melton refused to be interviewed when reached by phone at her home Monday evening. Yoknapatwapha County Sheriff's Department are "very interested" in interviewing Arlene Melton said Jones.

Anyone who witnessed the crime or saw anything unusual at the park or in the surrounding area on Monday should call the main sheriff's department number, 555-1212, Jones said.

Jones added that Avent Park -- which has tennis courts and a baseball diamond as well as walking trails -- is routinely patrolled by law enforcement and has never been a problem area for crime before.

"This is clearly an isolated incident, a really bizarre and tragic coincidence," she said. "The park is a great resource and it's perfectly safe."