[RedefinedDiva]

Authorities positive ID body as Dennehy's

WACO, Texas -- Combing through chest-high weeds under the blazing sun, investigators' painstaking search uncovered key evidence that helped in identifying the body of Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy, authorities said.

After finding a decomposed body in a field Friday night, authorities continued searching for a second day Sunday in the rural area about five miles south of Waco. They used farm equipment to cut down some weeds and grass up to 7 feet tall.

The site is just north of gravel pits where authorities searched last week after the arrest of Carlton Dotson, who played basketball at Baylor last season and had been living with Dennehy since spring.

McLennan County Sheriff Larry Lynch announced late Sunday that the Dallas County medical examiner's office had determined that the body was Dennehy's. He said he had notified the 21-year-old player's family.

"With that evidence collected today, they were able to make a positive identification," Lynch said, refusing to specify what evidence was found.

McLennan County Justice of the Peace Belinda Summers told The Associated Press that searchers found a head Sunday morning in the same field where the body was discovered.

Lynch has declined to say if the weapon has been recovered.

Sheriff's Capt. Paul Wash declined to comment Monday on new evidence in the case or possible motives.

"That's probably not something we're going to discuss," he said of motives. "We have an investigation to go through. We need to be able to process and work through and see where it leads us."

Dotson, 21, was arrested last week in his home state of Maryland on a murder charge from Texas in Dennehy's death. He remains jailed without bond, awaiting extradition to Texas.

Dotson was arrested July 21 after calling 911, saying he needed help because he was hearing voices, authorities said. Dotson told FBI agents in Maryland that he shot Dennehy after the player tried to shoot him, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. But after his arrest, Dotson told The Associated Press that he "didn't confess to anything."

Dotson's mother-in-law, Pam Bayuk, told Monday's editions of The Dallas Morning News that she began worrying about Dotson last fall, when she said he told her he was hearing voices, seeing visions and having trouble controlling his thoughts.

"He said he gets to thinking things, and even though he knows these things aren't true, he can't quit thinking them. I told him that can be a very dangerous thing and asked him to get some help," said Bayuk, wife of Sulphur Springs police Chief Jim Bayuk.

This spring, Bayuk said she spoke with one of Dotson's coaches at Baylor, telling him several times that she was worried about Dotson's mental stability. In a subsequent letter to the assistant coach in May, Bayuk described Dotson as "paranoid and delusional." The school, citing privacy laws, refused comment.

Dotson's attorney, Grady Irvin, said Monday that police have not shared any details of the investigation with him. He said he is focusing on determining whether there is a valid basis for extradition and is looking into whether an arrest warrant for Dotson was obtained properly.

Baylor President Robert B. Sloan Jr. notified faculty, staff, students and alumni Sunday night about the identification of the body, saying in an e-mail that "today our worst fears were realized."

He asked Baylor employees to pray for Dennehy's family and for Dotson. Sloan said a campus-wide memorial service would be held for Dennehy in the fall semester at Baylor, the world's largest Baptist university with 14,000 students.

"Baylor has endured the heart-wrenching loss of students before, but never in such a startling and perplexing manner," Sloan wrote. "... We grieve the loss of Patrick and the impact of that loss on the Baylor community."

The player's girlfriend Jessica De La Rosa sobbed when she learned the body was Dennehy's.

"We were still praying for a miracle," she said. "We didn't get a miracle."

But she said there was some comfort in knowing.

Dennehy's family has decided not to return to Waco, De La Rosa said Sunday afternoon.

"Technically, there's nothing we can do out there," De La Rosa said from her Albuquerque home.

Dennehy's mother and stepfather, Valorie and Brian Brabazon, and their teenage daughter traveled to Waco from their Carson City, Nev., home for the first time last week to retrieve the player's belongings.

The family and De La Rosa left Waco about noon Friday after a three-hour meeting with police, and said they believed Dennehy could still be alive. The Brabazons dropped off De La Rosa in Albuquerque early Saturday morning and left for their home Sunday before learning that Dennehy was dead.

Dotson and Dennehy arrived last summer in Waco, about 100 miles south of Fort Worth, on basketball scholarships.

Dotson was a transfer from Paris Junior College in East Texas and eligible to play. 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.

Dennehy's family reported him missing June 19, seven days after he was last seen on campus. Dennehy's vehicle was found abandoned in a Virginia Beach, Va., parking lot June 25.

An unnamed informant told Delaware police that Dotson told someone that he shot Dennehy in the head as the two argued while shooting guns in the Waco area, according to court documents filed in the case June 23.