Body found in area where authorities have been searching for basketball player

Body found in area where authorities have been searching for basketball player
Eds: RETRANSMITTING to RESTORE sports designator; Baylor athletic officials plan statement at 5 p.m. EDT
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By ANGELA K. BROWN
Associated Press Writer
WACO, Texas (AP) -- Authorities found a body Saturday in an area they had searched for missing Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy, but they could not immediately identify the remains.
"We can confirm that there has been a body found, but we have no further information about that at this time," McLennan County sheriff's Capt. Paul Wash said. "It was in the same general vicinity that other searches have been conducted this week."
Dennehy was last seen on campus June 12. His former teammate and roommate, Carlton Dotson, has been charged with killing him even though no body has been found.
Dotson, 21, gave police three locations in Waco where Dennehy's body might be found, Dennehy's family said. The body was found in one of those -- an area of gravel pits about five miles southeast of Baylor University, Wash said.
An investigator with the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office said the agency expected Saturday to receive a body that is "greatly decomposed."
"They have been vague and they apparently have not found much. They apparently found it last night, marked the location and guarded it and then searched again this morning," said the investigator, who declined to give his name.
Weldon Brandon, who lives in the rural area where the body was found, said Saturday that his son found a "gold-colored basketball shoe like the Baylor team wears" across from where investigators conducted their search. He said the shoe, discovered last month after Dennehy's disappearance, had blood in it and was taken to the sheriff's department.
Dennehy's stepfather and mother, Brian and Valorie Brabazon, and his girlfriend, Jessica De La Rosa, left Waco on Friday after spending four days cleaning out Dennehy's apartment and meeting with police and Baylor officials. The Brabazons spent the night at a hotel in Albuquerque, N.M., where De La Rosa lives.
Brian Brabazon and De La Rosa each confirmed they spoke Saturday with the sheriff, who told them a body was found, but that officials were awaiting forensics tests by the Dallas medical examiner's office before confirming the identity. Barbazon said authorities did not give him a description of the body or where it was found, but De La Rosa said the sheriff told her the body was found in water.
"We still have hope that Patrick is still alive, but we want closure," Brabazon said.
A family friend, James Ackerman of Carson City, said the mother and stepfather were heading back to Waco.
According to an arrest warrant, Dotson spoke to FBI agents in his home state of Maryland after calling 911 and saying he needed help because he was hearing voices. The warrant says Dotson confessed to shooting Dennehy after the player tried to shoot him.
However, Dotson told The Associated Press after his arrest that he "didn't confess to anything."
He is being held in Maryland without bond awaiting extradition to Texas.
Dennehy, a 6-foot-10, 230-pound center, was last seen on campus June 12, and his Chevy Tahoe was found in a Virginia Beach, Va., parking lot June 25 without its license plates.
Friends of Dennehy say he told them he and Dotson had been threatened and that the pair obtained guns. The family of Dennehy also said he told coaches he feared for his life.
Head coach Dave Bliss has repeatedly said he and his staff were not aware of any threats. Phone calls to the university's athletic department were not returned Saturday.