What a weird, sordid story. Look for this on an upcoming episode of Law & Order!

From ESPN.com:

[quote]Prosecutors in Tahiti made the decision to open a murder investigation into the disappearance of former NBA player Bison Dele based on comments from the former girlfriend of Dele's older brother, the Los Angeles Times has reported.

The police official told the newspaper that Erica Weise told the FBI that Dele's older brother, Miles Dabord, informed her in a telephone conversation of a struggle aboard Dele's boat, the Hakuna Matata, that resulted in the deaths of Dele, his girlfriend, Serena Karlan, and the boat's captain, Bertrand Saldo.

In another report, the three were believed to have been murdered with the basketball player's own handgun, the chief prosecutor for the territory of French Polynesia told the Agence France Presse news service Wednesday.

"There is also every reason to believe that they were murdered and that a handgun was used," Chief prosecutor Michel Marotte told the AFP on Wednesday.

Investigators spoke with several eyewitnesses, who said they were "almost certain" a gun was aboard, even though Dele didn't declare one when his boat arrived in Tahiti.

Dabord reportedly deflected blame from himself, claiming during the phone call that the fight was started by Dele, the Times reported.

The call was reported to the FBI and the Sonoma County, Calif., Sheriff's Office. Sonoma County deputies confirmed they had received a phone call and forwarded the information to the FBI.

On Tuesday, Tahitian officials upgraded the investigation from a preliminary inquiry to a premeditated murder investigation. A premeditated murder investigation is the most serious level of any homicide charge under French law, the chief prosecutor for the territory of French Polynesia, Michel Marotte, told the Rocky Mountain News.

Dele, Karlan and Saldo have been missing since they left Papeete, Tahiti's capital city, aboard Dele's boat July 4. The boat was later found -- repainted and renamed -- in a private slip on Tahiti. Witnesses have said Dabord was seen docking the empty boat on July 15. He left the island two days later.

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The latest chapter in this bizarre story:

[quote]The older brother of missing NBA player Bison Dele was found comatose near the California-Mexico border and was arrested on a fraud charge and for allegedly fleeing arrest on the charge.

Miles Dabord was traveling with his brother and two companions aboard the boat before the disappearances.

FBI Supervisor John Steiner in San Rafael said Dabord was found Saturday night and was immediately transported to a San Diego area hospital.

``It's premature to call him a murder suspect because we haven't declared it a murder,'' said Andy Black, FBI spokesman in San Francisco. ``We're treating the boat in Tahiti as a crime scene and we haven't heard from any of those people in months.''

Black said authorities wanted Dabord for questioning.

Police in Chula Vista, Calif. said Dabord was found in Tijuana, Mexico, just across the border. He was identified Thursday and remained in intensive care.

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This whole thing is truly bizarre. Got a call from my partner's ex-wife when it first broke -- apparently their daughter went to Montessori School & Berkeley HS with his girlfriend, who's also missing.

And now the brother has died after slipping into the coma caused by an insulin overdose. And the search for the bodies was called off earlier in the week, so we will never know what really happened.

Well, it's pretty clear WHAT happened:

Start with a wealthy ex-basketball player (who gave himself a new wacky name).
Has deadbeat brother, who lives off his brother's handouts.
Deadbeat brother has a drug habit, steroids (which he takes for his asthma, uh-huh).
Wealthy brother considers cutting off deadbeat brother financially.
Wealthy brother nevertheless invites deadbeat on world cruise with him. (Cue ominous music.)
Wealthy brother mysteriously "disappears."
Wealthy brother's boat repainted and renamed.
Deadbeat brother starts using wealthy brother's identity.
Deadbeat brother found in a coma on the Mexican border.

There must be a hundred episodes of "Murder She Wrote" using this basic plotline. This is not a mystery: it's a CLICHE.

[ September 28, 2002: Message edited by: Charlie in the Trees ]

Bizarre!

[quote]Originally posted by George_vikingfan:
And now the brother has died after slipping into the coma caused by an insulin overdose.

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Has anyone seen Claus von Bulow lately? [sorry, that was in bad taste, but I couldn't resist ...]

[ September 28, 2002: Message edited by: DCBucky ]

This one just gets more "Columbo" by the minute. Now ESPN.com is reporting this:

[quote]With Dabord's death, investigators lost their key witness in the case.

But, the FBI has learned that Dabord left documents with a lawyer to be opened in the event of his death, an official involved in the French investigation said. Authorities believe the paperwork contains an account of what happened to his three sailing companions, said the official, who asked that his name not be used.

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You left out the next scene CITT:

Dead brother claims innocence on his deathbed but says noone would ever believe why.

Hollywood will have a field day with this one.

Next scene:

Mysterious documents left with unnamed lawyer to be opened after brothers death suddenly disappear?

[quote]Originally posted by Charlie in the Trees:
Well, it's pretty clear WHAT happened:

Start with a wealthy ex-basketball player (who gave himself a new wacky name).
Has deadbeat brother, who lives off his brother's handouts.
Deadbeat brother has a drug habit, steroids (which he takes for his asthma, uh-huh).
Wealthy brother considers cutting off deadbeat brother financially.
Wealthy brother nevertheless invites deadbeat on world cruise with him. (Cue ominous music.)
Wealthy brother mysteriously "disappears."
Wealthy brother's boat repainted and renamed.
Deadbeat brother starts using wealthy brother's identity.
Deadbeat brother found in a coma on the Mexican border.

There must be a hundred episodes of "Murder She Wrote" using this basic plotline. This is not a mystery: it's a CLICHE.

[ September 28, 2002: Message edited by: Charlie in the Trees ]

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Except now ESPN the Rag, er, Magazine is reporting that Bison Dele himself may be implicated in at least one of the deaths. Take it for what its worth as the source for the story is Dele's brother's girlfriend. From ESPN.com:


[quote] Bison Dele's girlfriend, Serena Karlan, was knocked to the deck and killed instantly while breaking up a fight between Dele and his brother, Miles Dabord, as the three and a ship's captain sailed near Tahiti in early July.

Dele then killed the captain, Bertrand Saldo, with a wrench, because Saldo wanted to report Karlan's death to authorities.

As the fight continued, Dabord killed Dele in self-defense, using Dele's own handgun.

And Dabord weighted the bodies and dumped them overboard from the Hakuna Matata.

That's the story Erica Wiese, Dabord's former girlfriend, told ESPN The Magazine's Tim Keown and the Los Angeles Times. The stories are in the Oct. 14 issue of ESPN The Magazine and Thursday's Los Angeles Times.

Wiese, 31, told both that she spent time with Dabord in early September, days before he went to Mexico, where he eventually overdosed from what his mother called a combination of insulin and not taking asthma medication. He died on Sept. 27.

She talked to a Sonoma County sheriff on Sept. 9 and told the FBI the story on Sept. 10.

"I think he was in a fight with [Dele] that ended ugly," Weise told the Times. "Did he say to himself, 'I've got witnesses, now I have to take care of them?' Probably. Why the gold? I think he was going to do what he could to escape. ... Once he gave up on that, he overdosed."

Police in Phoenix arrested Dabord for trying to buy $152,000 in gold while using Dele's identification on Sept. 5.

The next day, Dabord met with Wiese in Northern California.

"At first, he said, 'I came to tell you I'm leaving, I'm in trouble,' " Wiese said. "Then he said, 'I need to help Bison out, he's in trouble. It's about a missing person; there's been an accident and I need to get Bison money -- gold, because it's the portable currency.' "

Dabord told Wiese that Karlan had died and that he was considering suicide because, having failed to buy the gold, it would look like he killed her, Wiese told the Times.

Two days later, she said, Wiese and Dabord were at a motel near the Mexico border, where he told her of the three deaths. She said she feared for her safety at that point.

"I just want to go home," Wiese told Dabord. "I know too much."

She returned to her home in Palo Alto, Calif. Dabord went into Mexico to get "medicine you can't get here."

Wiese never heard from him again, though she spent the next night with a knife next to her bed.

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about a scenario where Miles would be saying to himself, 'Holy ..., I've told someone about this, I have to take care of it,' " Wiese said in the Times. "That's why I slept with the knife. It was a worst-case scenario."

Wiese said she talked to the media to clarify her involvement with Dabord and let people know, "that I have told everything I know about this; I'm an open book."

Wiese told the Times she thinks Dabord was "acting in survival mode" in the last days of his life.

The FBI does not consider Wiese an accomplice to Dabord, but others, including Kevin Porter, Dele's personal assistant, thinks she might be a potentially key witness.

"From July 8, when Erica arrived in Tahiti to vacation with Miles, to Sept. 7, when she has said Miles told her exactly what happened, that's about 60 days," Porter told the Times. "You're trying to tell me Miles didn't say anything about this to her between then? This is what keeps me up at night."

"I didn't see anything," Wiese told ESPN The Magazine. "I didn't hear anything."

Wiese said she joined Dabord on the boat anchored off Moorea, Tahiti's neighboring island, on July 8. She spent one night on the boat. Dabord told her that Dele and Karlan were on another island, and that Saldo was with friends on Moorea.

"I didn't have a desire to meet Bison," Wiese told the Times. "From Miles' point of view, it sounded like Bison was treating Miles [poorly]. Miles even said to me once, 'If I ever keep going on and on and on to make a point, please stop me -- that's what Bison does.' "

Wiese left Moorea on July 15 after a rocky week with Dabord. She told the Times, however, that the trip ended with Dabord telling her, "We just need to start over."

Dabord returned to the Bay Area on July 20.

"This has emotionally screwed me up," Wiese told the Times. "I don't want to be out here trying to explain this. I've lost a person I cared about. I've been lied to. I've got a lot of baggage with this. And what makes me upset is to hear people say they think I'm holding things back. I wanted to stand by my man. I'll always love him. But I also have to consider the things I've been told.

"That's why I ask myself: Was I a sucker?"

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Except of course, her source of information was the deadbeat brother. She was not a witness. And that story does not explain the boat repainting and the identity theft.

Part of the cliche is the murderer claiming: the dead guy did it! self defense! The dead guy, of course, offers no counter-argument.

I especially loved the part where the deadbeat brother was claiming that the wealthy brother was treating him poorly. Hell yeah: he was threatening to cut the guy off financially and force him to earn an honest living. That's fraternal abuse. Sounds like a rationalization to me.

There's enough here for a double episode. Jessica couldn't solve this one in 58 minutes.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I believe Bison was in any way at fault. But it is a possibility which is what makes it a bit more interesting. It's one of those things that we'll never know EXACTLY what happened. But its probably musch closer to your cliche scenario than not.