As he spiraled downward from civic-minded citizen of the year in Port Orange to meth-making motel dweller, Pete Atwood has confounded the people who once knew him as an affable and responsible individual.

As he spiraled downward from civic-minded citizen of the year in Port Orange to meth-making motel dweller, Pete Atwood has confounded the people who once knew him as an affable and responsible individual who worked tirelessly for his community.

But in the last five years, the 66-year-old Atwood has been arrested six times, half of those apprehensions for cooking meth in roadside motels with people half his age, police reports show.

His most recent meth-cooking incident on Feb. 10 in room 12 at the Town & Country Motel in Port Orange got him arrested along with two women, one of them a 21-year-old.

In 2012, the year he was arrested three times, he deserted his wife of 36 years and emptied the couple's bank account leaving his former spouse “penniless” to the point she had to apply for food stamps, divorce papers show.

Those who have known him for more than two decades described a man who cared about his city — Port Orange — and who was involved with almost everything from entertainment to planning and zoning. Those same people are wondering what they could have done, if anything, to help thwart Atwood's free fall into a world of drug addiction and drug manufacturing.

“His is a story of a real community tragedy and a real personal tragedy,” said John E. Evans of DeLand. “I don't know what happened to him.”

Atwood's ex-wife Jayne Atwood believes her former spouse's dive into drug addiction began in 1992 after he was in a car accident. Jayne Atwood said it was then her husband started taking pain pills. Port Orange Mayor Allen Green, who said he's known Atwood about 30 years, said Atwood once told him he had back pain when he worked in food management.

“He said he took pain pills for his back. If that's what got him in trouble, I don't know,” Green said.

Like Evans, Green hailed Atwood for his extensive work in the community.

“His involvement in this community was amazing,” Green said. “I'm saddened by the current results and I don't know how to help him.”

On Oct. 30, 2012, Atwood told a Daytona Beach Shores investigator that he had a “problem with being addicted to methamphetamine,” an arrest report shows.

That day the Daytona Beach Shores Department of Public Safety arrested Atwood and a 32-year-old woman inside Unit 6 at the Famous Shores Motel, 3738 S. Atlantic Ave. Atwood said he kept chemicals needed to manufacture meth under the kitchen sink of his motel room, the report shows.

Atwood pleaded no contest to a charge of manufacturing methamphetamine and was given drug offender probation by Circuit Judge Leah Case in May 2013. He violated probation in August of that year after he was again caught manufacturing meth and was re-arrested, court records show. His probation was revoked in October 2013 and he served 102 days in the county jail.

He was released on Feb. 8 only to be arrested again on Feb. 10 at the Town & Country by Port Orange police, a report shows. This time, Atwood invoked his Miranda rights and asked for an attorney, the arrest report shows. He is still in custody at the jail and has repeatedly declined requests for to be interviewed.

When she filed for divorce in July 2012, Jayne Atwood's petition for dissolution of marriage summarized hers and her husband's final days together: “He deserted me with all the overdue bills. He transferred joint funds to an unknown bank account. He left me penniless and failed to pay mortgage, property taxes and income taxes. He is hooked on crack cocaine and is hiding out. I have had severe stress and mental abuse.”

Reached by telephone earlier this week, Jayne Atwood said her former husband “was a good person.”

That's not disputed by either Evans or Green. Both men said Atwood is the type of person who would help anyone and they recalled Atwood's heyday in Port Orange when he was part of Family Days with founder Al Bell.

Atwood came into the Family Days fold after he met Bell and he soon became vice president of the board. In 2007, after being involved with several organizations in Port Orange, Atwood was honored as the Citizen of the Year by the Volusia League of Cities. He was also on the board of the Friends of the Bandshell, and was a planning commissioner for Port Orange in the mid-2000s.

Atwood and Bell were investigated by Port Orange police in 2008, though, when both were accused of stealing money from Family Days. Bell was never charged, but at the time Port Orange police said Atwood stole $21,395 from Family Days between October 2005 and October 2007. Atwood pleaded no contest to a charge of grand theft in 2009 and he was sentenced to two years probation with adjudication withheld, court records show. Atwood repaid more than $8,000 to Family Days, court records show.

No one knows when Atwood began his dalliance with meth, but when he was arrested by Daytona Beach Shores detectives in 2012, he told one of the law enforcement officers that he had “manufactured methamphetamine in the past,” the arrest report shows.

Evans, who was president of Family Days until early last year, said he believes “temptation got in the way” of Atwood.

“He got involved with someone who used recreational drugs,” Evans said of Atwood. “Apparently he developed some skills for making meth. You ask yourself, is there anything we could do to help?”



