As Baylor basketball officials investigate whether the university may have violated NCAA rules regarding missing center Patrick Dennehy, conflicting stories have surfaced regarding the source of the down payment for a sport utility vehicle Dennehy purchased while at Baylor.

Meanwhile, the car dealer who sold the SUV to Dennehy told The Dallas Morning News that Baylor coach Dave Bliss inquired about the vehicle.

Waco dealer Jerrel Bolton is quoted in Friday's Morning News as saying Bliss called him last fall to help Dennehy find an SUV.

"Coach Bliss just called me and said if I had a sports utility vehicle and wanted to sell it to one of his players," Bolton told the newspaper.

It's unclear whether such a call to a car dealer violates NCAA rules. Bliss was unavailable for comment.

Bolton said Dennehy bought a 1996 Chevrolet Tahoe for approximately $10,000, with a $2,000 down payment.

That SUV is now the source of a Baylor investigation.

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, a close friend of Dennehy's reportedly said that the player told her after a spring 2002 recruiting trip to Baylor that the school might buy him a sport utility vehicle if he agreed to transfer and give up his scholarship last season.

Adriana Gallegos, who dated Dennehy after they met nearly three years ago at the University of New Mexico and has remained good friends with him, said in Thursday's paper that Dennehy returned to Albuquerque, N.M., happy and boasting that Baylor was "going to hook me up better than UNM."

"I'm going to get probably like a nice SUV," Gallegos, 22, said Dennehy told her.

"I didn't think much of it because I've heard so many stories of good athletes getting hooked up," she said. "I just assumed he was going to be pretty well taken care of."

Gallegos' account helps support Dennehy's biological father's claims in Wednesday's Morning News that a Baylor coach helped his son with a down payment on the vehicle.

Patrick W. Dennehy, Sr. told the newspaper that his son's girlfriend, Jessica De La Rosa, told him that the younger Dennehy had received between $1,200 and $1,800 from a Baylor coach as part of the down payment on the vehicle -- a violation of NCAA rules.

Those accounts, however, were contradicted Thursday in the Waco Tribune. Bolton told the paper that one of Dennehy's girlfriends -- not a Baylor coach -- gave Dennehy the balance of a $2,000 down payment to buy the vehicle.

"I know that story is wrong," Bolton said of Dennehy's father's account in the Morning News. "I have the damn proof right here on my desk to show you."

Bolton told the paper that Dennehy came to his Chevrolet dealership in October 2002 and traded in a 1995 Dodge Intrepid after selecting a black Tahoe.

Bolton said that Dennehy's father (Dennehy, Sr.) co-signed for the automobile loans.

Dennehy planned to put $2,000 down on the purchase, Bolton told the Tribune, but Dennehy told the car dealer on Oct. 17 that he was getting money for the balance of the down payment from "one of his girlfriends."

"We didn't let him have the vehicle at that time because he didn't have all the down payment and we held it until one of his girlfriends gave him the rest of the down payment," Bolton told the paper.

Dennehy came back on Oct. 24 with the rest of the down payment, Bolton said. He took possession of the vehicle that day.

"Let's use a little common sense," Bolton told the Tribune. "If he is going to get the money from Baylor, they are not going to make him wait a week to get the money. They are going to have the money. It makes more sense that he was going to get it from a girlfriend, which is what he said."

Baylor currently is undertaking an internal investigation into the men's basketball program to determine whether a coach committed NCAA violations by helping pay for Dennehy's tuition and other expenses. The inquiry began Sunday after a reporter questioned the program's integrity.

"Baylor has begun a vigorous internal inquiry independent of the athletic department to determine the facts in this situation," Baylor athletic director Tom Stanton said in a prepared statement Wednesday. "The investigation will be thorough. We take these issues very seriously. We are hopeful questions about Patrick's first year at Baylor can be resolved quickly."

The NCAA has contacted the university regarding the basketball program, a Baylor official said. But an NCAA spokeswoman said the organization has a policy of neither confirming nor denying information regarding a current or possible investigation.

In addition to the younger Dennehy's alleged cash payment, the elder Dennehy also said a member of Baylor's basketball staff paid a car service to drive De La Rosa from Waco to a Dallas airport last fall. That allegation was investigated by New Mexico and the NCAA, and De La Rosa was declared ineligible to run track next season. She will likely be reinstated if she repays the cost of the trip, said Janice Ruggiero, a New Mexico athletics official.

Former Baylor basketball player Carlton Dotson remained jailed in Chestertown, Md., on Thursday, accused of killing Dennehy. The 21-year-old player has been missing since June 12 and Waco police this week began searching for his body. Brian Brabazon, his stepfather, filed a missing persons report with police on June 19.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.