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movie news
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Mon. 06 08. 2009 12:39 PM EDT
David Carradine's Family Seeks FBI Help In Death Investigation
Actor's family is outraged over publication of death photos.
by
Gil Kaufman
David Carradine
(
Todd Williamson/ FilmMagic
)
The family of "Kill Bill" star David Carradine has reached out to the FBI and a private forensics expert to help untangle the bizarre circumstances behind the veteran actor's death last
week in a Bangkok hotel room. The family is also threatening to sue any media outlets that reprint a gruesome crime scene photo from his death.
The Associated Press reported that lawyer Mark Geragos (who is also representing Chris Brown in his assault case) said that his client, Keith Carradine, David Carradine's half brother, met with the FBI on Friday and filed reports that could lead to a separate inquiry by the bureau into Carradine's death.
The family also wants a private autopsy from forensics expert Dr. Michael Baden, to determine whether another person could have been involved in Carradine's death. Carradine, 72, was found hanging naked in a hotel closet in his luxury hotel room on Thursday morning with a rope tied around his neck, wrists and genitals.
While hotel surveillance footage reportedly did not show anyone else entering the actor's room prior to his death, the family does not believe that Carradine committed suicide, as initially suspected. On Friday, police said they believed that rather than suicide, Carradine may have died from accidental suffocation or heart failure as a result of the ropes tied around his body. That report led to speculation that he had perhaps engaged in a risky type of sex play known as autoerotic asphyxiation.
"They want an investigation," Geragos told CNN's "Larry King Live" on Friday. "I would think that the people in Bangkok would want to support an investigation and allow the FBI to go over there and assist in the investigation so we can get the answers to the questions."
The family has also threatened to sue any media outlet that reprints images of Carradine's death after a Bangkok tabloid, Thai Rath, published a picture taken on the scene of the actor's death. The crime-scene pictures allegedly show Carradine wearing a dark wig and fishnet stockings while hanging inside a closet.
Results of the autopsy performed on Friday are not expected for at least three weeks. Carradine's body was flown out of Bangkok on Saturday on its way to Los Angeles for burial.
Among the many strange scenarios being floated to explain the veteran actor's unexpected death was a suggestion by Geragos on "Larry King Live" that the "Kung Fu" star may have been taken out by a secret society of assassins because of his efforts to uncover the shadowy societies in the martial-arts underworld.
When panel member Jerry Penacoli of "Extra" said that Carradine had been "interested in investigating and disclosing secret societies," Geragos responded, "What that means is connected to martial arts and his interest in martial arts. And so there is a suspicion that if there was some foul play, that that may be the first area where they should look."
Penacoli also told King that in 2003 divorce papers filed by Carradine's fourth ex-wife, Marina Anderson, she claimed that one of the causes of divorce was the "continuation of abhorrent and deviant sexual behavior" that had gotten in the way of their marriage.
According to TMZ, the actor's third ex-wife, Gail Jensen, said in a recent interview that "David was pretty strange. He would like to get tied up ... he could tie himself up ... he spent days planning a different feature. He would go to a hardware store and buy the stuff." She told the site, however, that while Carradine enjoyed bondage, it was "never sexual."
This report is from MTV News.
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