Not sure if this is the right forum, but here goes... Body identified as belonging to Dennehy Sunday, July 27 Authorities positive ID body as Dennehy's -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Associated Press WACO, Texas -- Medical examiners on Sunday identified a body found in chest-high weeds near Waco as that of Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy, who had been missing about six weeks. McLennan County Sheriff Larry Lynch announced the identification late Sunday night. He wouldn't provide any other details, but said he had notified Dennehy's family. The site where the body was found is north of gravel pits where authorities searched last week after the arrest of Carlton Dotson, who played basketball at Baylor last season and had been living with Dennehy since spring. Investigators had continued to comb through the high weeds Sunday, collecting evidence in a field where they found Dennehy's decomposed body Friday night in a rural area about five miles south of Waco. "With that evidence collected today, they were able to make a positive identification,'' Lynch said, refusing to specify what evidence was found. McLennan County Justice of the Peace Belinda Summers told The Associated Press that searchers found a head Sunday morning in the same field where the body was discovered. Dotson, 21, was arrested last week in his home state of Maryland on a murder charge from Texas in Dennehy's death. He remains jailed without bond awaiting extradition to Texas. Dotson was arrested July 21 after calling 911, saying he needed help because he was hearing voices, authorities said. Dotson told FBI agents in Maryland that he shot Dennehy after the player tried to shoot him, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. But after his arrest, Dotson told The Associated Press that he "didn't confess to anything.'' A message left for Dotson's attorney Grady Irvin early Monday at his Florida office was not immediately returned. Irvin had said last week after Dotson's arrest that he wasn't sure how police had reached the conclusion that Dennehy was dead. Lynch has declined to say exactly where the body was found or if a weapon had been recovered. Dennehy's family has decided not to return to Waco, the player's girlfriend Jessica De La Rosa said Sunday afternoon, hours before the identification was announced. Dennehy's mother and stepfather, Valorie and Brian Brabazon, and their teenage daughter had been in Albuquerque since dropping off De La Rosa at her home early Saturday morning but left for their home Sunday, she said. The Brabazons traveled to Waco from their Carson City, Nev., home for the first time last week to retrieve the 6-foot-10 center's belongings. The family and the player's girlfriend left Waco Friday after a three-hour meeting with police, and said they believed Dennehy could still be alive. On Sunday, an investigator in a cowboy hat was placing small yellow flags around the site indicating pieces of evidence. At times, as he moved around, the grasses obscured all but the top of his hat. Throughout the day authorities in crime scene vans and other vehicles traveled the dirt road back and forth to the site. Dotson and Dennehy arrived last summer in Waco, about 100 miles south of Fort Worth, on basketball scholarships. Baylor is the world's largest Baptist university with 14,000 students. Dotson was a transfer from Paris Junior College in East Texas and eligible to play. Dennehy, because of NCAA eligibility rules, had to sit out a year after transferring from New Mexico, where he was kicked off the team for losing his temper. Dennehy's family reported him missing June 19, about seven days after he was last seen on campus. Dennehy's vehicle was found abandoned in a Virginia Beach, Va., parking lot June 25. An unnamed informant told Delaware police that Dotson told someone that he shot Dennehy in the head as the two argued while shooting guns in the Waco area, according to court documents filed in the case June 23. ----------------------------------------------- Truly a sad story. RIP Patrick.
THought it would be his after they found it yesterday. well...i hope they have the right guy (being charged).
OK, this question is going to come across as very classless, but it's not meant to be. The way the articles are right now, it mentions that they found a head while searching for the body. Is this head Dennehy's or is it for another case? Truly sad either way.
I'm sure it is Dennehy's head. That would be crazy if they found another person's head in the same area of Dennehy's body. Remind me not to have a best friend like Dotson. First he shoots me and then he cuts off my head. If only all best friends were that kind. Just another reason not to mess with guns. Your best friend might up and kill you with one cause he's psycho and voices told him to. Put him away. Put him far, far away.
Other tragedies in sports recently. -USC football recruit's body found in the Pacific Ocean. -Minnesota football player shot and killed. -BlueJackets player found dead. -Rangers center(former Star) killed himself. -Pitt football player falls through church roof. -Former Islanders player's body found in the Alps. -Orioles pitcher OD's. As a MN Golden Gophers fan, I know what Baylor is going through. My prayers go out to the Dennehy family, Baylor University, and the Baylor basketball program.
This sounds grisly, but... The body had been decomposing for a couple of months - they say it's likeley wild animals dragged the head apart...
As awful as it sounds, thanks for posting that. I kind of figured that, but was confused about the way that every article was worded that I had read. Sad stuff.
They haven't actually said that the head belongs to the body yet, or have they? Either way, it's so unlikely that it doesn't. It's really sad and really scary. Dotson said he shot him when he pulled a gun on him. If this is how it went down, he really should have come forward sooner and not tried to hide the body or lie about it. Only leads to more suspicion.
This is really a sad situation, both from the perspective of the families and the school. I've heard that some of Dotson's family warned the coaches that he was unstable and was hearing voices. I ask, what could they've done?
I totally agree- I assume, though, that he just panicked. I mean, it seems like he had no witnesses, one way or the other, so at that point he feared what would happen to him if people found out he was the killer. I'm still kinda baffled how the police handled the situation. It seemed like all along that Dotson was the only one with some sort of link to Dennehy's last days, yet he was never considered a suspect until he volunteered to come forth and give another statement. I don't know, just weird, and incredibly tragic all around.
