RIP Mike Limberios

Reporters and editors at the Register who came to know Mike Limberios listened to his story, heard his truth and respected his courage.It was shocking to learn about the death on Wednesday of the man whose world crashed 2½ years ago when his 19-year-old son Jacob was killed. The Register filed more than 100 reports and updates about the death of Jacob Limberios, which remains classified as a suicide by the inane ruling of Sandusky County coroner John Wukie.The "official story" of suicide Wukie told about Jake was later modified after an investigation by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. But DeWine's investigation, and the end result, is all still just bunk.There were three people with Jake inside the York Township home where he was killed, but the exact truth about how the .357 Magnum handgun fired off the fatal bullet in a fraction of a second might never be known.This much, however, is clear — and has been clear — since the very day he was killed: Jake did not commit suicide.Wukie dismissed that clear evidence without any investigation of his own, and he still refuses to change the death certificate to correct his ruling. His arrogance and disregard for Mike Limberios, and the Limberios family, seemed to be and continue to appear callous and appalling.Public officials should not be allowed to maintain a false record of Jake's death, but there isn't any local or state official willing to demand it be corrected; to even call for it to be corrected. The officials who do the public's business, instead, choose to hide out and cite the power of others to make change by conveniently dismissing their own influence and power to avoid a bureaucratic battle.From Wukie to DeWine, they appear deaf, dumb and blind to what is right, seeming to prefer a hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil approach to public policy. They're more comfortable with that, it seems, than in taking a stand.The net result is the public loses, big time. What happened to the Limberios family at the hands of incompetent public officials could happen to any family, at any time, like a steamroller.Mike Limberios, despite the devastating loss of his son, picked himself up, dusted himself off and stood like a gladiator for his wife Shannon, for Jake and his brothers, for Jake's girlfriend, Kayleigh Bowers, and their young daughter, Ella.In the last 2½ years of his life, Mike Limberios publicly defined what it means to be a man who loves his family, loves his community and believes in doing the right thing. It's the same man he always was in life. Wukie, DeWine, Sandusky County sheriff's detective Sean O'Connell, county prosecutor Tom Stierwalt and special prosecutor Dean Henry, all also, in that same time, appear to have defined who they are. We're a better community despite the void of accountability, however, thanks to Mike Limberios.Rest in peace, brother.*Mike Limberios at his son's grave on May 1, 2013, just prior to a second exhumation ordered by Sandusky County coroner John Wukie, /Register file photo by Emil Whitis