Police: Kentucky census worker committed suicide

[DearAbby]

(CNN) -- A Kentucky census worker who was found dead in September committed suicide and staged the scene to look like a homicide, authorities said Tuesday.

The body of William E. Sparkman Jr., 51, was found September 12 near a cemetery in southeastern Kentucky's Clay County.

He had a rope around his neck that was tied to a tree, but his body was touching the ground, authorities said. He had "Fed" written on his chest in black ink, Kentucky State Police said Tuesday, but forensic analysis showed he wrote it himself with a felt pen.

"Analysis of the evidence determined Mr. Sparkman's death was self-inflicted," police said in a statement.

"A thorough examination of evidence from the scene, to include DNA testing, as well as examination of his vehicle and his residence resulted in the determination that Mr. Sparkman, alone, handled the key pieces of evidence with no indications of any other persons involved."

Link:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/24/kentucky.census.worker.death/index.html

[Taverner]

1. WHAT??????? THIS IS FUCKED UP!!!!!

Seriously - the findings have been corrupted

I didn't trust Kentucky Government before and now I REALLY DON'T

Bunch of fucking Hee Haws killed him, in honor of their God, Glenn Beck.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Duh.

:shrug:

[Taverner]

3. You buy this explanation?

[Junkdrawer]

7. Well, HFPS was partial to the auto-erotic asphyxiation theory...

but suicide is a good second choice for HFPS...

[Taverner]

9. I often wonder if HFPS is really one of us...

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

39. No differing opinions allowed, eh?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. They're both suicide.

Auto-erotic asphyxiation is more common than insurance fraud by suicide (and lynching) thus I kept that on the table of possibilities.

[Taverner]

14. And he tied his hands and wrote Fed because he had a lynching kink, eh?

How about James Byrd - did he drag himself behind that truck too?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

16. No, it now appears insurance fraud was the motive.

"And he tied his hands and wrote Fed because he had a lynching kink, eh?"

And it appears he wrote Fed and then tied his hands. More David Carradine than James Byrd.

[Taverner]

19. Off the subject, but I have the oceanfront property in South Dakota I think you might like

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

20. Because I'm the gullible person that will believe anything, right?

The irony's going right over your head, isn't it?

[Taverner]

23. OK well here's my guess - you're applying Occams Razor to this

And you're taking the line of reasoning that the simplest explanation (suicide) must be the best

And we can trust cops, they go through a lengthy screening process, right?

And there's even a MOTIVE! Despite the fact that he's always had money problems, and it never drove him to anything close to this in the past.

-------------

But sometimes Occam's Razor is wrong. Using Occam's Razor, the Piltdown man would have been credible. Lots of things would have gone under the radar (and currently do)

No I'm not talking about Pseudoscience

I'm saying that there just might be Anti-Government sentiment in Kentucky - and that sentiment, as can be seen at teabagger protests, might drive someone to kill the "other." In fact right after this hit the news, the RW was all a twitter that he was a "child molester" - echoing the same fears that probably got him killed.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

24. The Piltdown man? You're citing the Piltdown man?

:rofl:

[Taverner]

27. Yes - it was a fraud, your point? Is Piltdown your new Godwin?

The police on this case are a fraud - they are protecting one of their own

You are buying their fraud hook line and sinker

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

29. Piltdown man was an invention.

Like you're inventing a police conspiracy.

[Taverner]

30. No, the police explanation is an invention, like your version of logic

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

32. And you know that how?

Oh, that's right. You've made it up.

[Taverner]

35. How do you tie your hands and then hang yourself?

And then, why?

You think he faked it, to blame some group of rednecks?

If that's the case, why not create a line to them? Make a connection...why leave it up to chance?

Yes, he may have been smart, but how loose do your ropes have to be for you to hang yourself? How loose were they? Could you tie your hands together with the same amount of slack and put yourself in his position?

Just assuming "he probably killed himself because Kentucky Cops said he did" is a fatal assumption

Do you have any proof that he DID kill himself? And motive =/= evidence.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

40. You put a rope around your neck, bind your wrists, and take the weight of your feet.

Thousands of people do it every year.

"You think he faked it, to blame some group of rednecks?"

Apparently he did it because he wanted to die and leave his family with thousands of dollars in insurance settlements. What part are you having problems understanding here?

"Yes, he may have been smart, but how loose do your ropes have to be for you to hang yourself? "

The bound wrists and the rope around the neck are two different things completely unrelated to each other. For somebody who likes to make up stories, you have a surprising lack of imagination.

"Do you have any proof that he DID kill himself? And motive =/= evidence."

All of the evidence points to suicide. No evidence points to murder. What were these, some sort of hillbilly ninja Moriarties who lynch a guy without leaving any evidence whatsoever? And the insurance fraud motive holds a lot more weight then your murderous ninja hillbillies theory.

[MattBaggins]

49. You do not simply take the weight of your feet

you either stand on a chair or jump from a support. If your feet touch the ground you will not overcome your body ordering you to stop trying to kill it. Your body's instinct will be to put your damn feet back on the ground.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

50. Nonsense.

You watch too much TV. Thousands of people hang themselves every year with their feet in full contact with the floor. There may be an urge to save oneself by standing up but it'd be quickly replaced with euphoria.

[MattBaggins]

51. Bullshit

Give me actual figures on that. I think overcoming that self preservation panic is about as likely as drowning oneself in a bowl.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

52. You've got internet access, don't you?

Google some suicide by hanging photos.

They shouldn't be hard to find. There are vast series of teen suicide photos showing that very scene gathered together to raise awareness about how easy it is to committ suicide.

"I think overcoming that self preservation panic is about as likely as drowning oneself in a bowl."

Yeah, well there's a reason you're not a police investigator.

[Name removed]

53. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Ishka Kibble]

54. There's a very good book on the subject.

I think you'd expand your thinking on the subject if you were to read this very fine work. It's quite a compelling read, too.

http://www.amazon.com/Autoerotic-Asphyxiation-Forensic-Medical-Aspects/dp/1587366045/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259100742&sr=1-1

There's a whole lot of stuff in this world that we don't understand, but before we rush to condemn anyone, we are duty bound to understand as well as we can the circumstances of the situation. This book would be a great help to you, I believe.

[cali]

41. OK, I just got curious

and duct taped my wrists. It wasn't terribly difficult. Evidently his wrists were in front of him and quite far apart. What I want to know is if they found the roll of duct tape he used.

And it's hardly just the local or state cops, it's also the FBI and the ME.

[Taverner]

42. I couldn't do it - and I tried

Shortly after this happened

[cali]

44. I didn't have a problem, although the tape got twisted up.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. Why wouldn't I?

His feet were on the ground. His bonds were loose. The word "Fed" appears to have been written by himself. There's no evidence of any other person at the scene.

I'm not going to believe this is a lynching by some crazy Glenn Beck-listening hillbillies without any evidence.

I'm not going to believe something just because I want to believe it.

This is like Ashley Todd all over again.

[Taverner]

10. OK - tell your overlords at FR the missions was not a sucess...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. You appear confused.

Believing crazy ass stereotyping conspiracy theories based on no evidence whatsoever is something the Freepers do.

So it looks like you've got more in common with them than me.

[timeforpeace]

31. It was a conspiracy. To make conspiracy nuts here look stupid. Well played, Bill.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

33. No need to go through so much effort to do that.

They do it all by themselves.

[Lex]

4. Sure he did.

Right. Uh-huh. No doubt about it.

[Junkdrawer]

5. Look: We wouldn't want to embarrass Michele Bachmann in any way...

by declaring an obvious murder a murder, would we?

Also, a Federal Hate Crime investigation would turn up God-Know-What-Else corruption in local law enforcement.

Best to declare it a suicide and move on - screw justice - screw the family.

[boppers]

6. WTF?

Rope doesn't stretch over time, and they now have ways of detecting that, uhm, people wrote on themselves?

:wow:

[TicketyBoo]

13. Just guessing.

But maybe they found the marker with his fingerprints on it?

[Zodiak]

15. If they did, it would lend confidence in the findings

But they are not releasing any evidence at this time, so in my opinion, this is a trial balloon. If it floats, then they do not HAVE to release any evidence.

Without evidence and an INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION, I believe nothing this PD tell us. Too many authoritarian agencies lie these days for political reasons.

[Echo In Light]

17. "Too many authoritarian agencies lie these days for political reasons."

Yes, a given. A simple matter of course. It's prolly always been that way, though...

[Taverner]

46. Don't you understand? Police NEVER lie. They are as honest as can be, by gum!

So sayeth HFPS

[boppers]

18. If they found a marker nearby...

With only his fingerprints... and no smudged other prints...

It still doesn't indicate that there weren't two markers, from the same production lot, and one was being used in his job, and the other was used to write on him.

[TicketyBoo]

22. That would be quite a coincidence.

Too much of a coincidence, I think.

But I wouldn't care to be the next census taker in that neck of the woods.

[boppers]

28. Quick check: If you're a person who carries writing utensils, do you have more than one?

I wouldn't put it past the cops to only own/have one pen on them, though.

*sigh*

[DefenseLawyer]

21. I had a case several years ago that was the opposite of this.

A very prominent man in a small town hanged himself. Found on his living room floor under a light fixture with a rope around his neck and a chair on its side beside him. But basically because of his standing in the community the police and the local coroner (a mortician not a pathologist) came up with an elaborate theory that he had been strangled to death and then "posed" to make it look like a suicide. They eventually charged a halfwit neighbor essentially because he had stopped there the next day when he saw the police at the house and seemed to act "suspicious". A lot more to it, but without writing a novel here, a real pathologist concluded it was consistent with hanging not manual strangulation, the state brought the case to trial anyway and the police never wavered from their theory. The result was a hung jury and the state chose not to retry it. I'm not saying this case wasn't a suicide, it just reminded me of an old (but true) war story.

[anigbrowl]

25. somewhat more detail in this report:

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/police_sparkman_committed_suicide_made_it_look_lik.php

[bushmeister0]

26. Um , , , what happened to the FBI? Where are they in all this?

The guy was a federal employee. Is Holder just going to take Sheriff Taylor and Barney's word for it and leave it at that?

[EFerrari]

36. Andy and Barney usually do a much better job than the FBI

the same agency that wouldn't give Dr. King security because he was not "worthy".

[bushmeister0]

43. Yeah, but the FBI wouldn't be trying to keep Goober out of trouble.

[EFerrari]

47. That's true. n/t

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

58. So who is the FBI trying to protect?

[Junkdrawer]

37. Appears so...

:mad:

[anigbrowl]

55. All news reports mention they've been involved in the investigation.

Usually in the first line, too.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

57. The FBI and the US Forest Service were involved in the investigation.

[whathehell]

34. I smell B.S...

Could this be another example of the very "low profile" the news media kept (or keeps?) on Conservative killings of Liberals?...Like The Tiller murder and the Creep who, after reading Bernard Goldberg's "Ten People Who are Destroying America", went out to a Unitarian Church and killed a couple of people he considered "liberal" because, in his own words, "I couldn't get to the others"..meaning the people in the book?

I dare say, the killing of "liberals" -- or anyone seen as one -- seems to draw a "hushed" reaction from the press....This STINKS.

[Malikshah]

38. Looks like the same investigators who looked into the Downing Street Memo Dr.'s

suicide...

[backscatter712]

45. What a crock of shit.

I'll bet you the cops were in on the lynching. Just like in the 60's when the feds finally investigated lynchings in the South and found local sheriffs participating.

I'll bet you that's what it is...

[cali]

48. that's what you deeply want it to be

it's fucking ridiculous.

[SteveM]

56. And to think, some here thought it was Gun Nuts...

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/nashville_brook/46

It would be wise not to come up with your favorite political romance when explaining unknown deaths.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

59. Don't they know gun nuts would have shot him not hanged him.

[SteveM]

60. Details, details... (nt)