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Wednesday, July 23
Updated: July 24, 7:32 PM ET
 
Weather delays search for Dennehy

Associated Press

WACO, Texas -- A spokesperson for the Waco police department told ESPN that there was no organized search Thursday for the body of missing Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy.

This news comes after Tuesday and Wednesday's fruitless searches.

Carlton Dotson
Carlton Dotson, charged with the murder of Patrick Dennehy, is led into the Kent County, Md., district court house on Tuesday.
Waco police say they expect to find his body based on information from his former teammate, who is now charged with murder.

Investigators, some on horseback, searched river banks and a gravel pit Tuesday for Patrick Dennehy's body. Rain delayed the search Wednesday morning.

"There is always the hope, very sincere hope, that we find Mr. Dennehy, mostly for his family and then for the criminal case," Holt said.

Brian Brabazon, Dennehy's stepfather, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that police have told family members former roommate Carlton Dotson provided investigators with three locations to search for the body.

Brabazon and Dennehy's mother, Valorie, along with their daughter Wyn and Dennehy's girlfriend Jessica De La Rosa, arrived in Waco on Tuesday night. "We're going to talk to the police and we want to go tour the campus," Brabazon said. The family went to Dennehy's apartment Wednesday to remove his belongings.

Brabazon appealed for privacy as they proceeded with the grim task, and declined further comment.

"We appreciate your concern, but today we'd like to do what we have to do as a family," he told news reporters gathered outside a Waco hotel.

Two campus ministers spent several hours with the family Wednesday, said a Baylor spokeswoman, Lori Scott Fogleman.

Dotson, 21, was charged Monday night with murder after he confessed to FBI agents that he shot Dennehy in the head "because Patrick had tried to shoot him," according to an arrest warrant released Tuesday.

"Mr. Dotson provided specific information about the murder of Mr. Dennehy that would lead us to believe he committed the murder," Holt said, declining to release more details.

Girlfriend Declared Ineligible
Jessica De La Rosa, a University of New Mexico track athlete and girlfriend of missing Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy, says she's been declared ineligible by the NCAA for next season.

She said Tuesday she broke NCAA rules by accepting money "from a member of the Baylor coaching staff for a cab ride from Waco (Texas) to Dallas" after visiting Dennehy last season.

De La Rosa, who has run hurdles for UNM, declined to identify the coach and said she could not comment further.

Dennehy played two seasons for the New Mexico Lobos before transferring to Baylor in the spring of 2002.
-- The Associated Press

Meanwhile, an Aug. 19 extradition hearing was scheduled for Dotson in Chestertown, Md., said Teresa Shelton, a law clerk in Kent County District Court. Shelton said Wednesday that she set the date after consulting with prosecutors and Dotson's attorney.

Dennehy, 21, was last seen on campus on June 12; his family reported him missing on June 19. The next day, Waco police said Delaware police told them an informant said Dotson told someone he shot Dennehy in the head after the two argued.

Dotson was seen "during the late evening" on June 12 in Sulphur Springs, the hometown of his estranged wife, driving Dennehy's Chevrolet Tahoe, and told someone he planned to go to Maryland, the warrant said.

Dennehy's Tahoe was found abandoned, without license plates, in a Virginia Beach, Va., mall parking lot June 25.

On Sunday, Dotson contacted authorities near his hometown in Maryland, said he was hearing voices and later, after being taken to a hospital, asked to speak with FBI agents about Dennehy's disappearance, authorities said.

Dotson attorney Grady Irvin said Tuesday afternoon that he had not spoken to his client since his arrest.

"I don't think he's in a mental state right now to be speaking to anyone in any lucid fashion," Irvin said.

Irvin said he would examine the arrest warrant and see if any comments that Dotson made in recent weeks were included.

"If it is, there is a significant likelihood that his competency to make those statements are in question," he said.

Dotson was ordered held without bond in Maryland on Tuesday. An extradition hearing was set for within 30 days after the defense refused to waive the right to such a hearing and allow Dotson's immediate transfer to Texas.

Dotson and Dennehy were on the basketball team at the Baptist-affiliated university last season. Dotson recently lost his scholarship and was not planning to return to Baylor in the fall.

Melissa Kethley, Dotson's estranged wife, said Tuesday that she does not believe he 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."

In a brief statement Tuesday, Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss said the team and university were shaken.

"We keep hoping this isn't true. It seems unreal, especially that a 21-year-old who always wore that big smile and couldn't wait for the season to begin might be gone," Bliss said.





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The latest details in the Patrick Dennehy murder investigation.
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Dennehy's girlfriend Jessica De La Rosa joins ESPN's Ed Werder.
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