BY AMY HIGGINS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
WEST CHESTER -- A letter for William Burress from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles sat Wednesday on the front desk at the Knights Inn on Cincinnati-Dayton Road. It was marked "Not here."
Mr. Burress stayed at the motel off Interstate 75 for about six months, often doing maintenance and odd jobs for room and board. But he hasn't been seen there since last spring.
Motel clerk Neil Kalyan said Mr. Burress was never a problem in the motel.
"He was a good person," Mr. Kalyan said. "He was a good guy." Mr. Burress also left a good impression with the staff at TireDiscounters on Tylersville Road, where he worked for about a year as a tire changing technician.
"We're all amazed; he was a fantastic person," said Lorin Asher, manager at TireDiscounters. "He always went out of his way to help people."
Mr. Asher said Mr. Burress came to the Cincinnati area with a circus. Tired of traveling, and taking a liking to the area, he stayed. He rode his bike from the motel to work, often stopping to help people who had car trouble on the interstate, Mr. Asher said.
"Personality plus, an amazing nice guy," Mr. Asher said.
After Mr. Burress stopped showing up for work about two months ago, Mr. Asher assumed he had returned to his native Chicago. But then police announced he was the suspect in a Fifth Third Bank robbery and said he had had run-ins with the law in Chicago.
"You never would have guessed, never would have even dreamed," Mr. Asher said.
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