Lab report: Patrick Dennehy died of gunshot wound

WACO, Texas -- Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy died of gunshot wounds to the head, according to a preliminary autopsy report released Wednesday.

Dennehy's official cause of death is homicide, the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas said in its report.

The one-page report was released Wednesday to Belinda Summers, a justice of the peace in McLennan County, where the body was found Friday. Authorities found the remains of the 21-year-old athlete, who had been missing about six weeks, in a grassy field four miles from campus.

Investigators had searched earlier in the week at nearby gravel pits, a site police say was provided to them by Carlton Dotson, Dennehy's roommate and former teammate, who is charged with murder.

Dotson was arrested July 21 after telling FBI agents that he shot Dennehy when Dennehy tried to shoot him, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

After his arrest, Dotson told The Associated Press that he "didn't confess to anything." Dotson, 21, remains jailed without bail in his home state of Maryland pending extradition to Texas.

Dennehy was last seen on campus June 12; his family reported him missing June 19. His vehicle was found abandoned in Virginia Beach, Va., the next week.

A funeral service tentatively is scheduled for mid-August in San Jose, Calif., near where he grew up. The service had been expected next week, but Pastor Dick Bernal of the Jubilee Christian Center said he had been told that forensic work would continue through Thursday or Friday.

A campus memorial service is being planned for September at Baylor, the world's largest Baptist university with 14,000 students.

Dotson transferred to Baylor last year from Paris Junior College in East Texas. 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.

A committee of three Baylor Law School professors will investigate allegations that an assistant coach told Dennehy his education and living expenses would be paid if he gave up his scholarship for a year. Baylor tuition and fees cost more than $17,000 a year.

The committee also will examine whether Dennehy received $1,200 to $1,800 from an assistant coach toward a loan for his Chevrolet Tahoe.

Baylor athletics department spokesman Heath Nielsen said Tuesday that the university stands by basketball coach Dave Bliss' statements denying any knowledge of NCAA violations.

Dennehy's roommate, Chris Turk, who does not attend Baylor, said Dennehy "hinted" that one or more coaches helped him buy his vehicle. Turk said Dennehy told him that a coach paid for his vehicle repairs.

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