Former bank manager arrested.

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

A former Springfield bank manager who may have tried to fake his own death was arrested Wednesday in Benton County on an arson charge from Florida, capping a bizarre saga that played out locally in recent weeks.

Randy Arlen Mainwaring, 36, will be arraigned today in Benton County Circuit Court on a warrant as a fugitive from Orange County, Fla., where he faces a charge of first-degree arson, according to Benton County corrections.

Mainwaring, former manager of the KeyBank branch in Thurston, made comments recently that suggested he might fake his death or kill himself to avoid prison, his older sister, Pam Mainwaring of Eugene, said Wednesday.

In Lane County Circuit Court, Mainwaring faces a civil suit from KeyBank, which alleges that he took confidential client data and was planning to fake his death and use the client data to create a new identity.

Earlier this month, a man who said he was Mainwaring's brother submitted an obituary request to The Register-Guard for Mainwaring.

That request contained what now is clearly known to be fake information: a falsified copy of an official United Kingdom death certificate stating that Mainwaring died by suicide in London. Based on the death certificate, The Register-Guard on Tuesday published an obituary for Mainwaring.

The Florida arson charge stems from an accusation that Mainwaring set fire to the Florida home of his ex-wife, Pam Mainwaring said.

She said her brother, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, can be manic or deeply depressed.

"He just really needs help, mentally, I think," Pam Mainwaring said. "We love him and we want the best for him. But you can't just let people keep doing bad things to other people."

Randy Mainwaring, who was hired by KeyBank in November, made the local news in June when the bank sued him. Mainwaring at the time denied the bank's accusations and said the bank was retaliating because he had complained that a bank employee was sexually harassing him.

But the bank's civil lawsuit wasn't Mainwaring's principal legal problem. He was also facing criminal charges in Florida.

Mainwaring, who has two children, clashed with his wife, Jill Mainwaring, last year at their Florida home, Pam Mainwaring said.

He "started being manic," she said, and after he was served with divorce papers, he set fire to their house. Mainwaring also tried to frame his ex-wife for drug possession, according to court documents.

According to court documents, Mainwaring didn't appear for arraignment on criminal charges in River County, Fla., in November, around the time he was hired in Lane County to work at KeyBank.

According to documents filed in KeyBank's civil lawsuit, Mainwaring told the Florida judge he couldn't appear because he was speaking at a financial services conference in Oregon. But he falsified an agenda of the conference to remove a speaker's name and insert his own, according to the documents. Florida officials realized the deception after checking the conference Web site.

Mainwaring's problems with KeyBank stem from the discovery that he had e-mailed to his personal e-mail account identity information for more than 2,900 customers, according to court documents.

The bank's investigation found that Mainwaring has past convictions for cocaine possession, possessing drugs without a prescription, misdemeanor resisting arrest and misdemeanor driving while suspended in Florida, according to court documents.

Florida police records filed in the bank's civil suit show that Mainwaring faces a range of charges, from car burglary to criminal mischief. The FBI also is investigating possible identity theft charges, said Mike Sweeney, an FBI agent in Portland.

Mainwaring told family members that he planned to leave the country July 20 to avoid prison, Pam Mainwaring said.

He told family members that police "would not be looking for him because he would be dead," she said. The family wasn't sure whether Mainwaring intended to kill himself or to fake his death, she added.

Within a couple of days, the family received a telegram - purportedly from an end-of-life organization in London - stating that Mainwaring had "terminated his life," Pam Mainwaring said. But the family doubted the telegram's authenticity, she said.

Also, The Register-Guard received a death notice, purportedly from a registrar in the southwest London community of Kingston upon Thames, that certified that Mainwaring had committed suicide. The head of a Swiss-based euthanasia organization was listed as certifying the death.