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Missing basketball player's body identified
« on: Jul 27th, 2003, 11:45pm » |
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Missing basketball player's body identified
Sheriff: Additional evidence linked remains to Dennehy
Sunday, July 27, 2003 Posted: 11:19 PM EDT (0319 GMT)
WACO, Texas (CNN) -- The body found near Waco on Friday is that of Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy, McLennan County Sheriff Larry Lynch said Sunday night.
The Southwest Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas confirmed the identification based on additional evidence found earlier Sunday, Lynch said.
Lynch would not confirm what the additional evidence was, but CNN had reported earlier Sunday that authorities searching for Dennehy recovered a human head in the same area where they found the body. That information came from a source familiar with the forensics investigation.
Lynch had previously described the body as badly decomposed. He would not describe the clothes found on the body or any evidence found in the area.
Dennehy was last seen June 12. His former teammate, Carlton Dotson, was arrested Monday in Chestertown, Maryland, and charged with killing him. (SI's report)
Police said the body was found in an abandoned gravel pit about five miles from the Baylor campus. Lynch said it was near an area that had been searched before.
A source close to the investigation told CNN that authorities went to the site based on information they obtained during an interview with Dotson.
Dotson confessed to the crime while talking to FBI agents, according to an arrest warrant issued by Waco police. (Full story) The warrant states that Dennehy was killed with a handgun.
Outside a courthouse in Chestertown on Monday night, Dotson told a reporter with The Associated Press, "I didn't confess to anything."
Dotson attorney Grady Irvin Jr. told CNN that he spoke with his client Tuesday and is "very concerned about his well-being at this time."
He said Dotson's mental state is obviously in question, and "any statements that were given by Mr. Dotson, if any, couldn't have been [given] freely, couldn't have been voluntary, and couldn't have been done while he was coherent in any way, shape or form."
Missing since June 12
Patrick Dennehy, 21, was last seen alive June 12. His SUV was found June 25.
Dennehy, 21, was reported missing by his family June 19. His SUV was found June 25 -- without its license plates -- in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
An informant's account in an affidavit given to police said Dotson shot Dennehy during an argument while the two were shooting guns in a field north of Waco. Dotson had previously been questioned by Waco police but had not been named a suspect, and a search of the field did not turn up a body.
Sgt. Ryan Holt of the Waco Police Department confirmed that investigators are performing forensic tests and trying to trace a 9 mm Glock handgun that was recovered in south Waco and handed over to police.
Dotson, meanwhile, is being held without bond in Kent County, Maryland, after he refused to waive his right to an extradition hearing. A hearing will likely be held within a month.
Dennehy, a 6-foot 10-inch center, was considered a top recruit to Baylor, having transferred the year before from the University of New Mexico. College basketball rules forced him to sit out the past season, but he was expected to play this fall.
Correspondents Mike Brooks and Kathleen Koch contributed to this report.
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