This is such a bizzare incident..when it first happened..law enforcement was considering the suicide angle and I thought to myself WHAT???..it just seems to far fetched...I don't think I buy it...not without knowing more details..I know about the insurance, I mean more details on HOW he actually staged it and did it...so sad to think if he did do it..that he didnt even accomplish what he was trying to do..which was to leave money to his family.

I don't think it was a suicide. I have to agree with you that there would have been several better alternatives if that was what he had in mind. BTW - Do you ever proof read your articles or use spell check before you post? Your third paragraph is a complete contradiction.

serioulsy? suicide? who is investigating this crime? the cops from Reno 911?

I'm happy to have found TCR again. :) I was doing research for a criminal justice class and remembered this (looking for male homicide victims and looking at their crime scenes). I think he didn't commit suicide. Why would he have written fed on himself? And why would he be naked? That doesn't make sense to me. And as sickofthebs said I agree: wtf?

Law enforcement in this matter should be prepared to present the public with forensic information indicating suicide, such as materials on the victim's hands or under his fingernails, etc., and demonstrate how or if someone could tape oneself up and make this look like a sick murder. Otherwise, let the conspiracy theories commence!!

I would have originally thought it sounded odd, but let's look at the scene. His hands were tied in front of him - loosely. Handwriting experts say that the way FED was written on him that he wrote it on himself. And as for the hanging, he was so low to the ground that he was almost on his knees, with detectives saying all he had to do to live was stand up. This was simply a man who wanted to die, but wanted to make sure that his insurance paid out to his family.

When it first happened, it went unreported by the news media for two weeks. The only people who would've known about it were the local people.

I think this one is a suicide. With all the evidence and the way he put himself there, surely that is.

Same Law Enforcement cops in another case found a man dead, hands tied behind his back, shot 6 times in the back of his head, the same cops said it was suicide! hmmmm...

Too many people to keep thier mouths shut?? Not when the "feds" are involved. Think of all the "conspiracies" that have made it past a lot of people for a long time. If they wanted to cover this up cause it had something to do with them they could very easily do that.

I would like to think that someone wouldn't do this to themselves but I suppose worse things have happened.

"And as for the hanging, he was so low to the ground that he was almost on his knees, with detectives saying all he had to do to live was stand up."

So their investigators assume that his body won't react to prop him up instinctively using survival reflexes. It looks like he was either killed somewhere else and brought to the cemetary or the tree limbs and rope gradually gave in and lowered his body after several days. Their analysis really doesn't stand up.

In cases like this, where I know I am not being told all the facts, because authorities are duty bound to protect the privacy of the deceased, I ask myself what is probable, considering human nature, what is known, and lately, what is the political atmosphere in the community, state, all the way out to across the country.

To me, the findings are more plausible than not. Human is a complicated species. Just when you think we aren't capable of doing X, along comes someone to prove us wrong.

It takes a big man to admit his mistakes.

If only more right-hating, Sarah Palin fearing-and-hating, Republican-hating, conservative-hating haters would locate their balls and take this opportunity to discover they can admit they rushed to judgment and they indulged their bigotry (oh yes progressive regressive permissives are hard-core bigots). If only.

[That, ladies and germinologists, is a purposely incendiary statement, modeled on those made by the moonbats who leave those kinds of comments here attacking other commenters rather than contribute to the discussion. Let's see what kind of nuttiness ensues, shall we? LOL!]

I thought I had posted on your original sparkman thread weeks ago, but apparently it didn't take, or I didn't post.

If it had taken I would have warned you not to close off the option now official.
When I was a girl my father's former secretary, a friend of the family whose children I had played with, was found dead in the woods, in similar fashion to Sparkman, long story short she had staged her suicide to look like murder in order to provide for her young children with a double-indemnity insurance payout.

At the time I said Sparkman would have had a rational basis to stage his suicide to look like he was murdered in the line of duty, especially if he had formed a belief that his cancer had returned.

There are a variety of benefits available to federal workers killed in the line of duty, even part time temporary no-benefit employees like Sparkman.
I speculated that he would have been warned of the dangers of canvassing that particular territory(with specific warnings to avoid certain places), and when he signed on, been advised all benefits available, none of which his heir would qualify if he died a natural death or a death outside the scope of his duties.

( I did not know that he had taken out large private policies; I don't know yet whether this additional private insurance might have been made avail to census workers in general.)

The information revealed is enough to make any contest of the suicide finding look like a bad case of denial.

It turns out to be true that Sparkman was made aware of dangers.
He did take out large policies
He told a friend that he had formed a plan to take his life and knew where he would do so, that "he had found a spot".
He told this friend he had formed a belief that his lymphoma had returned.

The implements of death (rope, duct tape, rags) were found in his truck. DNA analysis of the tape did not reveal any evidence of handling by another person.

There was no trauma underneath the duct tape. Sparkman had no defensive wounds.
There were no drugs/alcohol in his system. There was no sign of dragging.

The duct tape around his hand was so loose as to allow his arms to move apart as wide as his shoulders and his hands to manipulate the ropes.

The letters scrawled on his chest appeared to be written by himself, and in fact were upside down and a foot tall, none extending past his reach.

He was never out of contact with the ground, and he could have relieved the pressure on his throat by standing.

The case is all too similar to the one I mentioned - If I remember correctly it was the bindings that were the first tip to police that she had not been murdered.

None of the physcial evidence is definitive on their own or collectively. The only things pointing to a suicide are the two insurance policies and the testimony of a "credible" witness to his plot.

Why not wait to commit suicide after the waiting period for his life insurance policies expired in one or two years?

Why would he expose his plot to someone and screw up his son's inheritance?

Why would he hang himself in a remote area and not arrange to have this person make sure that his body was found?

Why would he strip down knowing that he might be discovered by this person or by a relative?

He could've been coerced into many of these actions which would explain the absence of foreign DNA (so they say). On the other hand, it could've been suicide. I'm curious as to whether the truck was involved in the hanging. It was a mere 50 feet from the tree. The tailgate was open. His clothes were in the truck. Other items used in the hanging were found in the truck.

criminal profiler
Some details emerge on death of census worker Sparkman
George Harris Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel 2008

http://voices.kansascity.com/node/6025

Why not wait to commit suicide?

If he had formed a belief that his lymphoma had returned, as one witness said he had, he might wishto act out his plan before he became too weak or indisposed or dead to carry it out. My understanding it that they were accidental policies and would not have paid out ever in the instance of death from natural causes.

Also, he might not continue to be in a position to continue paying premiums ( I don't know for sure, but I doubt either was a whole-life policy, but rather, term insurance.)

The similar case I mentioned, my Dad's former secretary, IIRC, there was both documentary and witness evidence supporting the suicide findings. I need to go looking through my mother's papers for a news clipping...

People telegraph and confess to crimes to other people with regularity, it's not as if that's a rare thing never heard of before.

Here is a link with one of the more complete accountings of elements of the investigation leading to the final conclusion made

http://tiny.cc/yleuC

It turns out that Sparkman took out two accidental death and dismemberment policies, not to be confused with life insurance. They don't allow a payout for suicides at all. I stand corrected.

600K is an awful lot of coverage for a depressed area where the typical income is around 20K.

Thanks. I read the article earlier.

I seriously doubt this cracker working for the feds killed himself.

Pete Kotz, your a miserable piece of shit. In your first article you were talking about how we goobers in gooberville killed a poor censes worker and that we are so dumb and uneducated. Now that you have to retract your original story you fail to mention that it was not the locals belief that Bill Sparkmen was murdered but yours. You are the one who stated that some dumb hick killed a censes worker for the mere fact of anti government hatred. I'm sad for your family that has to live with your dumb ass. You speak of the mountain people as if we were non-human. I know my comment about you affects you in no way, and hell you probably are enjoying the attention. That shows me ignorance on your part. Yeah, most people that reads this are going to say that I'm just a mad mountain hick and don't know why I'm so upset. Well the fact of the matter is I'm tired of people that think they know what mountain people are like because of a movie they saw and draw the conclusion that that is how we really are in day to day life. Let someone talk about your town in a negitive way that affects the way society views you because your from the town that is looked down on from people that have no idea of how you live except for what they hear and not what they actually know. It's people like the author of this article that give the public false perceptions of our culture and I think that ole Pete K should be held accountable for the fear that he has instaled in the minds of people that has quit coming to this area because of the supposed danger this county projects.