Baylor Basketball: Body Identified

[Honeykiss1974]

has anyone else been following this? The article mentioned the rumour that I heard about him being shoot by his friend, but on GMA this morning, they said that it was just a rumour.

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Friend: Dennehy in fear before disappearance
By David Leon Moore, USA TODAY

WACO, Texas. — Missing Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy was afraid, felt threatened and was "acting paranoid" directly before his disappearance three weeks ago, a close friend said Wednesday. Daniel Okopnyi, who calls Dennehy his best friend, last spoke to Dennehy on June 14. They agreed that Dennehy and former Baylor teammate Carlton Dotson, a "person of interest" to police in Dennehy's disappearance, would drive from Waco to Arlington, Texas, to go out to a club that night and celebrate Okopnyi's 20th birthday the next day.

But Dennehy and Dotson didn't show up, and Okopnyi hasn't talked to or seen Dennehy since.

"I have a gut feeling he's out there somewhere," Okopnyi, a student at Texas Christian University who lives with his mother and stepfather in Arlington, told USA TODAY. "I hope and pray he's OK."

Okopnyi, who became friends with Dennehy in high school in Santa Clara, Calif., said that Dennehy had talked to him in the days before his disappearance about being insulted and threatened by someone named "Harvey" and another person. He said Dennehy told him he and Dotson had acquired guns for protection.

"Harvey was a player, a new player, and the other guy might have been a player, too, I'm not sure," Okopnyi said.

Baylor's list of incoming recruits includes Harvey Thomas, a 6-8, 210-pound junior transfer from Fredericksburg, Va., who played his freshman year at Georgetown University and last played at Northeast Oklahoma A&M, a junior college.

An affidavit released Monday says Dotson confessed to a relative that he shot Dennehy in the head with a 9 mm handgun after an argument. That affidavit says Dennehy's girlfriend said threats had been made against Dennehy and that a person named "Harvey" had been responsible for the threats.

A Baylor sports information officer said he doesn't know if the "Harvey" mentioned in the affidavit is Thomas, who is on campus now, enrolled in a summer session.

Assistant athletic director Scott Stricklin said he thought the association between the name in the affidavit and Thomas was "an unfair leap" and that the university probably would issue a statement on this later in the day.

Waco police last Friday announced that Baylor players were suspected in the case, but they have backtracked from that statement.

Okopnyi said that Dennehy and Dotson were together when he spoke to Dennehy on the phone June 14, and that Dennehy felt Dotson needed protection.

"He said, 'I've got Dotty's back,' " Okopnyi said. "It seemed like maybe the threats were aimed more at Carlton than at Patrick."

Okopnyi doesn't know why someone might have been threatening Dennehy or Dotson. "Patrick said he would explain it to me when he got up to Arlington," Okopnyi said. "I never saw him again."

Florida-based criminal attorney Grady C. Irvin Jr., who just concluded representing former Florida State quarterback Adrian McPherson in a court case, was retained Tuesday to represent Dotson, who is home in Hurlock, Md.

Dotson, who played at Baylor last season as a junior college transfer, will not be returning after coach Dave Bliss told him his playing time would be reduced. As a junior at North Dorchester High School in Hurlock, Dotson led the school to the 1999 Maryland Class 1A championship.

Okopnyi also said Dennehy told him his car had recently been broken into and things stolen.

"We checked into that. (Dennehy) never filed a report with us," Waco police spokesman Steve Anderson said. "I'm not saying it didn't happen, but it was never reported."

Early in the Dennehy investigation, Okopnyi was interviewed over the phone by Waco police and submitted a notarized statement. He said he was told by police to call back if he had any further information to offer.

Okopnyi said he called back late last week because he felt something was wrong and wanted to offer any information he could.

"It involved the threats and I just had a bad feeling," he said. "Things were being said about Patrick and Dotty that I didn't think were right."

He left a message with officer Robert Fuller but never got a call back.

"I was sort of surprised," Okopnyi said. "It wasn't what I thought would happen. They said they'd keep me updated. But they never got back. It seemed like they didn't want anything else from me."

Anderson said the investigators have been inundated with hundreds of calls daily and are trying to get back to everyone.

Okopnyi's stepfather, Alex Preston, and his mother, Oksana, said Wednesday that Dennehy was like a member of their family.

"He was up here almost every weekend," Okopnyi's mother said. "Danny and Patrick were inseparable. Patrick was such a good kid. That's why it doesn't surprise me if he was trying to protect Carlton. He was like that, good to his friends."

Contributing: Gary Mihoces, in Hurlock, Md.