BAYLOR BASKETBALL Dotson allegedly drove missing teammate's Tahoe

The incident occurred one week before Patrick Dennehy was reported missing.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
FORT WORTH, Texas -- The wife of former Baylor University basketball player Carlton Dotson has told authorities that Dotson was driving missing player Patrick Dennehy's vehicle when he visited her in Sulphur Springs on the day Dennehy was last seen, the woman's stepfather, Sulphur Springs Police Chief Jim Bayuk, said Tuesday.
Dotson's wife, Melissa Kethley, described the visit to Waco police detective Robert Fuller, Bayuk said.
Dennehy has been the object of a highly publicized search by Waco police and other law enforcement personnel since he was reported missing nearly a month ago.
Dotson, who has left the Baylor team and returned to his family's home in Hurlock, Md., has been listed by police as "a person of interest" in the case but not as a suspect.
A key element in the case is Dennehy's 1996 Chevrolet Tahoe, which was found abandoned in a Virginia Beach, Va., parking lot on June 25.
The account
Bayuk said Kethley has told him that Dotson visited her in Sulphur Springs on the evening of June 12 and that he was driving Dennehy's vehicle.
"I wasn't aware of it [the visit] at the time, but she told me later -- Carlton was up here in Patrick's vehicle," he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
"It was the 12th. That's what she told me, and I have no reason to doubt her at all."
Bayuk said the matter came up after the fact because the visit occurred a week before Dennehy was reported missing. Bayuk said his stepdaughter is not giving interviews.
"Melissa didn't know anything had happened," he said. "Plus, Carlton and Patrick were roommates. She didn't think it was unusual for Carlton to have Patrick's vehicle."
Waco police spokesman Steve Anderson declined to comment on Kethley's account, but he said Dennehy was last seen attending a class at the Waco university on the afternoon of June 12.
Messages left Tuesday at the office of Dotson's attorney, Grady Irvin Jr. of St. Petersburg, Fla., were not returned.
A friend of Dennehy's, Daniel Okopnyi of Arlington, has said he spoke to the player on June 14. Contacted Tuesday, Okopnyi reiterated that and said he could not explain Kethley's account.
"Maybe Patrick was still in Waco and let Dotty borrow his car," he said. "Or maybe something else was going on that Patrick didn't tell me. I know his dogs weren't fed for about five days around [that time], so who knows?"
Bayuk said he couldn't reconcile his stepdaughter's account with Okopnyi's.
"That's the million-dollar question," he said.
Background
According to a June 23 search warrant affidavit prepared by Fuller, a police informant in Delaware was told by Dotson's cousin that Dotson had shot Dennehy in the head when the two were firing guns in the Waco area.
Dotson and Kethley met at Paris Junior College, where they were both athletes, and were married in August. They lived together in Waco until Kethley returned to Sulphur Springs in April, reportedly as a result of marital difficulties.
Bayuk agreed to comment after Ryan Ruthart, a Sulphur Springs resident who attended Paris Junior College at the same time as Dotson and Kethley, told the "Star-Telegram" that Dotson had visited Kethley in Sulphur Springs, about 90 miles northeast of Fort Worth.
Ruthart said Kethley told him that Dotson had picked her up and taken her to lunch in Dennehy's vehicle. He said that she did not specify when the visit occurred but appeared -visibly shaken" by the situation.
"I didn't talk about it too much with her because I could tell she was having a difficult time," Ruthart said.
Ruthart, a former baseball player at Paris Junior College, said he was interviewed Friday by a Texas Ranger who sought information on Dotson's background, including an incident in which Dotson allegedly threatened his roommate with a pair of scissors.
Ruthart said he witnessed the scissors incident but called it "way out of character" for Dotson.
Although Bayuk said his only knowledge of the situation comes from what Kethley has told him, he believes she is being truthful.
"I have no reason to doubt her," he said. "And, to me, that's a very crucial piece of evidence."