Patrick Dennehy - Dennehy's Murder

Dennehy's Murder

In the summer of 2003, reports surfaced that Dennehy and Dotson were concerned about their safety. They had purchased two pistols and a rifle and practiced firing them at a farm north of Waco. On June 14, Dennehy told friend Daniel Okopnyi that he was worried about threats made to Dotson by two teammates. Dennehy also indicated that he and Dotson would be at a party the following day at which neither appeared. Over the next few days, there were indications that something had gone wrong: Dennehy's mother and stepfather, Valorie and Brian Brabazon, were concerned that they had received no calls on Father's Day, Dennehy's roommate, Chris Turk, returned from an out-of-town trip to find that Dennehy's dogs had not been fed in days. On June 19, the Brabazons filed a report with the Waco Police Department that Dennehy was missing. On June 25, Dennehy's Chevrolet Tahoe was found in the parking lot of a shopping mall in Virginia Beach, Virginia with its license plates removed, allegedly by Dotson.

An affidavit filed on June 23, which was unsealed on June 30, seeking a search warrant for Dennehy's computer says that an informant in Delaware told police that Dotson, who by now was at home in Hurlock, Maryland, told a cousin that he had shot and killed Dennehy during an argument while firing guns in the Waco area. On July 21, Dotson was charged with the murder of Patrick Dennehy and taken into custody in Maryland. The search for Dennehy continued until July 25, when a badly-decomposed body was found in a gravel pit near Waco and was taken to Dallas for an autopsy. While Dotson said he felt compelled to speak with the FBI, it's unknown whether his report led police to Dennehy's body. The following day, medical examiners identified the body as being Patrick Dennehy. On July 30, his death was ruled a homicide after a preliminary autopsy report showed that Dennehy died of gunshot wounds to the head. He was also decapitated. Dennehy was buried in San Jose, California on August 7.