John Caylor

For the past 18 years, the family of a Jamestown man found dead on the front lawn of a south county home has been left with far more frustrating questions than answers.

“Every day we think about him, trying to figure out what happened,” said Debra Spangler, whose 25-year-old son, John Caylor, was killed in October 2003 after attending a party. No arrest has been made, and with a person of interest in the homicide also deceased, there’s a chance none will ever be made.

“We have to live without him,” said Spangler who, in a recent interview, recalled her son’s blond hair, big eyes and big head and willingness to help others.

“He missed out on all his nieces and nephews that he would have just loved,” she said of her five grandchildren. “He loved kids and loved being around them.”

Jason Caylor said his brother was caring and funny and, mostly importantly, a good person.

“He was like my best friend,” he said. “We were born two days apart in different years so we shared birthdays a lot growing up. He was a huge Buffalo Bills fan. He was just learning to enjoy being an adult.”

Caylor was discovered the morning of Saturday, Oct. 11, 2003, in front of a home on Waltonian Road in the town of Harmony. He had reportedly gone to the residence for a party held there the previous day.

The Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office initially described Caylor’s death as “unusual.” Days later following an autopsy, his death was officially ruled a homicide, though specifics were withheld.

Lt. Alex Nutt of the Sheriff’s Office said the local fire department had been called that morning for a report of a man down in the yard. The call was placed by the owner of the home where the party had taken place.

Nutt said everyone who attended that party had left before Caylor was discovered and no one noted anything amiss the previous night.

‘COMPLETE DISBELIEF’

Spangler remembers receiving the news of her son’s death. “I just screamed and asked how can it be?” she recalled.

Jason Caylor had a similar reaction.

“I was home — it was a Saturday morning,” he said. “I woke up to a mutual friend knocking on the door. He was the one who told me. My reaction was complete disbelief. I rushed to the location to see for myself. I think in my mind that I thought it was some kind of weird joke or something.”

With his brother’s death, Jason Caylor said he felt “an overwhelming amount of guilt” afterward.

“He had called me the night before asking for a ride away from the location where he died and I just forgot to go get him before I fell asleep,” he said, “and to make matters worse, he called twice in the early morning hours a few minutes apart and I didn’t receive the calls because I had left my phone in the car that night.”

He added, “Even though it’s been almost 20 years, I grieve for him about every six months — around his birthday and around 11th of October.”

Details regarding Caylor’s death were sparse even in 2003, and the family hasn’t learned much more in the last 18 years since his murder.

Spangler acknowledged her son wasn’t perfect. In fact, just days before Caylor was killed, he was named by the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office on its most wanted list for violating probation for selling a controlled substance.

“He might have had his problems, and I know he had his problems, but he would give his shirt off his back,” Spangler told The Post-Journal. “He might have had his issues, but he didn’t deserve this.”

Proof that Caylor still meant a lot to many people, Spangler noted, came during his funeral when several friends showed up to pay their respects.

A LIKELY SUSPECT

In the nearly two decades since Caylor was killed, few details have been made public. However, Nutt told The Post-Journal that investigators narrowed on a person of interest in the case they believed likely had a role in the Jamestown man’s death.

“This was a case, though it was never officially solved, they had a very good idea on what happened,” he said of the investigators who oversaw the case beginning in 2003.

Nutt said Caylor was strangled, though he suffered other injuries as well.

Caylor had gotten into a fight with the last man who reported seeing him alive. “What exactly they were fighting about I don’t know,” Nutt said. “There had been a lot of drinking going on.”

The man, who hasn’t officially been identified, later made statements deemed to be self incriminating, though he stopped short of confessing to the killing.

The person of interest died years later, and the case is technically considered closed, Nutt said.

The family is aware of the man who police believe killed Caylor.

Furthermore, Jason Caylor criticized the way the case was handled. “When I arrived they wouldn’t let me anywhere near the scene,” he said, “but there were people coming and going who had been there the night before. It was frustrating. I was told … that they were pretty sure they knew what had happened but they couldn’t prove it.”

REMEMBERING JOHN

Spangler doesn’t believe the family has received the closure it deserves had an arrest been made.

“It’s always the not knowing what really happened and why,” she said. “He was a good person and would do anything for anyone.”

Jason Caylor recalled the year before his brother’s death: “The prior Christmas was the first time he really went all out and bought gifts for everyone he could. I remember how happy he was when he explained to me all the things he had gotten for everyone.”

He also remembered how much his brother liked to play cards.

“He was a good card player,” Jason Caylor said. “He liked to play poker with a group of his friends. He had a lot of friends. I think I seen a few hundred people at the service. A lot of people I didn’t even know.”

Anyone with information regarding Caylor’s death is asked to contact the Sheriff’s Office.