A man found shot to death near the South Carolina border has been identified, preliminarily, as the estranged husband of a woman who unsuccessfully sued the owner of the Charlotte Hornets basketball team for sexual assault.
The Associated Press says Union County Sheriff Frank McGuirt reported Sunday that the body was that of Charlotte podiatrist Jeff Price, whose wife, Leslie, had sued Charlotte Hornets owner George Shinn in 1997. Price's body had a gunshot blast to the head, the AP says, and McGuirt says all indications pointed to suicide.
Price's body was found by deputies Sunday after it was spotted overheat by a private pilot joining in the search for the podiatrist, who was last seen alive Dec. 28. McGuirt tells the AP a .410 gauge shotgun was found next to the body.
Leslie Price accused Shinn of forcing her to have sex with him in his Tega Cay, SC home in 1997, the AP says. She lost the suit last month, but the couple had said the two-year battle strained their marriage and drained them financially.
Mrs. Price said Sunday she'd last spoken to her husband the night before he disappeared, the AP says, and didn't seem distraught when he called and told her he would see her and their three-year-old daughter that day.
"He was the best man," Mrs. Price told the AP. "He had a big heart, and he loved his family. Everything just got to be too much for him."
Price's relatives told the AP he had been despondent over business and marital struggles before he was last seen Tuesday at his parents' home in Monroe. Price reportedly quit his podiatry practice in October 1999 because federal investigators stopped Medicare reimbursements, surrendering his license for prescribing controlled substances as well, after his wife admitted that, as part of the dispute with Shinn, she'd used his credentials to obtain drugs.
