Paul L. Pierson wants you to know he's very much alive after another Topekan with the same name dies in Georgia

An acquaintance recently visited 74-year-old Paul Leroy Pierson's Topeka apartment to see if he was still alive. 

"I told him, 'I hope I am,'" Pierson said Tuesday.

He stressed that he remains alive and well.

Pierson said he has found himself being confused with a different Topekan named Paul Pierson, 76, who was fatally shot July 3 at a suburban Atlanta golf course in a case that has drawn national media attention.

The middle name of the slain Paul Pierson hasn't been released.

The Associated Press reported his body was found bound and gagged with tape alongside that of Henry Valdez, 46, of Anaheim, Calif., who was also bound and gagged. They were in the bed of a pickup truck registered as being owned by the slain Pierson at the upscale Pinetree Country Club in Kennesaw, Ga., northwest of Atlanta.

Also found fatally shot was the club's director of golf, 46-year-old Gene Siller, whom the Associated Press reported had gone to find out why Pierson's white pickup truck had been driven onto the club's 10th green.

A man was arrested July 8 on charges that included kidnapping and murder linked to the case. Police described him as being the "lone shooter."

Police identified him as Bryan Rhoden, 23, of Atlanta.

Investigators haven't commented on any possible motive for the killings of Valdez and Paul Pierson but said they thought Siller was slain because he came upon a “crime in progress."

Valdez and the slain Pierson appeared to have no connection to Pinetree Country Club, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

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It quoted public documents as saying the slain Pierson spent much of his adult life in and around California’s Wine Country, and was the director, president, treasurer and secretary of Mound House, Nev.-based EcoServices Environmental Remediation Services Inc.

The telephone number that business lists on its website is no longer a working number, The Capital-Journal learned Tuesday.

The newspaper tried unsuccessfully to make contact with several people online records suggested were connected with the slain Pierson. No obituary for him could be found.

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Confusion arose when Paul L. Pierson's wife was told her husband had died

Though the Associated Press reported the slain Pierson lived in Topeka, Shawnee County Election Office records show he wasn't registered to vote here.

But the surviving Paul Leroy Pierson remains registered to vote here, said county election commissioner Andrew Howell.

A Concordia native who has spent most of his life in Topeka, Paul Leroy Pierson spoke with The Capital-Journal in the Pioneer Motive Power Place Apartments residence he shares with his wife, Kathy Pierson, in northeast Topeka's Oakland community.

Paul Leroy Pierson said he is retired after working at places that included Topeka Presbyterian Manor.

Paul Leroy Pierson said he first learned he was being mistaken for the slain Pierson when a mutual friend contacted his wife to say "I'm so sorry to hear about Paul's getting killed."

He said he hadn't been familiar with the slain Paul Pierson.