- FAST FACTS:
- Police Releasing Few Details
- Family Says They Found a Bloody Gun
- Sister Believes Brother's Suicide was Staged
tom.powell@wreg.com
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(MEMPHIS November 19, 2009 9:17 PM) -- Memphis Police are conducting a death investigation after a man was located hanging from a tree in his backyard at 4118 Cohasset Cove Wednesday.
Family members tell WREG News Channel 3 the victim was 40-year-old Rodney Thompson. "He was a mentor," says his sister Sharon Johnson. "He had a big heart."
Johnson says she's been informed by the medical examiner that her brother was shot in the head. She says detectives returned to his home Thursday to investigate further.
"Then they're saying maybe he shot himself in the head, then he went outside and hung himself," Johnson says. "If you get shot in the head you can't do anything."
Police will only say they're conducting a death investigation. They will not say whether Thompson suffered a gunshot wound.
Johnson says she and her husband found a bloody gun under Thompson's mattress Thursday. She says there was also blood on the sheets, and in the foyer. She also says police found a suicide note which expressed how Thompson wanted his assets divided. She believes the note was forged.
