Possumblog

How very odd.

Investigators: Booster death was accident

By WOODY BAIRD
The Associated Press

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A University of Alabama football booster died when he hit his head in an accidental fall at home, rather than being slain as first thought, the police director said Thursday.

Police initially described the death of 65-year-old Logan Young as a bloody slaying after a fierce struggle but quit calling it a homicide a day later.

"He fell in his house, hit his head on a metal stair railing and died from that injury," Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin said at a news conference. [...]

Crime scene crews spent most of two days in Young's house, where police said blood or traces of blood were found in several rooms.

Lt. Joe Scott said Thursday that investigators determined that after Young fell, he lay on the floor awhile before getting up and walking into several rooms and then upstairs to his bedroom. [...]

Given the hyperventilating media coverage on Tuesday--fed in no small part by the police with their talk of a "mystery homicide"--this does seem to be an odd epilogue to the whole sad story. Given his notoriety, there will doubtless be folks who think there's yet more to the story than that of a simple fall and a dazed and dying man stumbling through his own house.

It was still an awful way to leave this life, but if there's any comfort to be found in it, at least it's not nearly so bad had it been done intentionally.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at April 13, 2006 02:02 PM