'Hate Mail' Handed Over To Creve Coeur Police

Tuesday 5:58 p.m. Update:

Creve Coeur Police Chief Glenn Eidman, who was not in attendance at Monday's Council meeting when the letter in question was turned over, told Patch late Tuesday afternoon "We are looking into it. We document it. We look at it like anything else."

He added that he wasn't aware of letters sent to former Councilwoman Bryant, noting that it would have included a period of time before he was the Chief of Police.

Original Story:

Creepy. Definitely personal. A veiled threat.

Those were some of the words City Councilwoman Jeanne Rhoades used Monday night to describe an anonymous letter she received within the last few weeks.

The typed letter, in a plan white envelope, also typed, which she said she told City Administrator Mark Perkins and Police Chief Glenn Eidman about immediately, was formally handed over to the police department at Monday night's Creve Coeur City Council meeting. Chief Eidman was not at the council meeting. Patch will be following up with police for comment.

Rhoades didn't describe the letter in much detail, but said it portrayed her as vindictive and mean-spirited. In making the disclosure, Rhoades publicly mentioned that former fellow Ward 4 Councilmember Laura Bryant had received mail along the same lines over the last ten years.

Reached by phone Monday night, Bryant, a candidate in the recent mayoral election, said she received one soon after the April contest and over the course of the last decade estimated receiving more than a dozen letters.

Bryant called them "very personal and disturbing," and that they at times mentioned her family. "At some point you realize this has crossed the line from sheer nuiscance," she said.

"If anything is mean, spiteful and vindictive, it's sending anonymous hate mail to people repeatedly over ten years," Rhoades said during Monday's meeting adding afterward that she felt it needed to be acknowledged in order to stop it.