Police search gravel pit for missing Baylor player
WACO, Texas (AP) – Investigators on foot and on horseback searched a gravel pit and the banks of the Brazos River on Tuesday for the body of missing Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy as authorities said a teammate admitted shooting the athlete. The teammate, Carlton Dotson, was charged with murder Monday in Chestertown, Md., near his hometown. He was ordered held without bail Tuesday, and his attorneys said they would oppose his transfer to Texas.
The search for the body was centered just miles from the Baptist university where Dotson and Dennehy played basketball last season.
The search began Monday night after Dotson spent about two hours with authorities in Maryland, where he lives.
Dotson, 21, admitted to FBI agents that he shot Dennehy in the head “because Patrick had tried to shoot him,” according to an arrest warrant released Tuesday.
Defense attorney Sherwood R. Wescott would not comment Tuesday on whether Dotson confessed. Dotson told a reporter outside the Chestertown courthouse Monday: “I didn’t confess to anything.”
Dennehy, 21, was last seen on campus on June 12, and his family reported him missing on June 19. The next day, Waco police said an informant reported that Dotson had told someone he shot Dennehy in the head after the two argued.
Dotson was seen on June 12 in the Texas hometown of his estranged wife, driving Dennehy’s Chevrolet Tahoe, the warrant said. The vehicle was found abandoned, without license plates, in Virginia on June 25.
Dotson went to Chestertown, about 55 miles from his hometown of Hurlock, Md., on Sunday and called 911, Chestertown Police Chief Walter T. Coryell said. When officers arrived, Dotson told them he “needed counseling” and was hearing voices, Coryell said.
The officers took him to a hospital for evaluation. While still at the hospital, Dotson asked to speak with FBI agents, authorities said.
Dennehy’s stepfather and mother, Brian and Valorie Brabazon, have said Dennehy was threatened shortly before his disappearance and reported the threats to his coaches.
Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss said in a statement Tuesday that “Patrick never reported any threats to the coaching staff.”
Bliss said the team and university were shaken by the turn of events.
“We keep hoping this isn’t true,” Bliss said. “I wish we knew more. We don’t know why, and we don’t know what happened.”
Dotson’s estranged wife, Melissa Kethley, said Tuesday in Sulphur Springs, Texas, that she does not believe Dotson killed Dennehy.
“I’ve known that he’s needed psychological help for a very long time,” Kethley said, crying, during a telephone interview. “He needs help, the boy needs help. … Maybe, if he did do this, it’s a blessing in disguise, and he can get the help he needs.”
Kethley would not discuss why she and Dotson were estranged.
AP-ES-07-22-03 1733EDT