Documents detail ex-QB's final day
Former Division II college football star Cullen Finnerty was drinking on the day he died and believed he was being followed.
A FORMER Division II college football star who disappeared in the Michigan wilderness during an impromptu late-evening fishing trip had a number of alcoholic drinks on the day he died and told relatives in two final frantic phone calls that he believed he was being followed, according to police reports.
Jennifer Finnerty told investigators that it wasn't the first time her husband, Cullen Finnerty, had a "paranoid" episode. Eighteen months earlier, she said, he drove 150 miles to Grand Rapids from Detroit because he feared the FBI was following him.
Finnerty's final days are detailed in police reports released to the Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act.
What the 116 pages don't reveal, however, is the answer that still haunts his family: What killed the record-setting Grand Valley State signal-caller, one of the winningest quarterbacks in college football history, during an ill-fated trip with his in-laws over Memorial Day weekend?
The autopsy, conducted in Grand Rapids the morning after Finnerty's body was found in the woods 65 miles north, found a "slightly enlarged heart and slightly cloudy lungs," but "no trauma to the body at all," according to a report prepared by a Lake County sheriff's deputy.
Undersheriff Dennis Robinson said this week his department still is awaiting toxicology results from the Kent County medical examiner's office.
"He died more than 2 months ago. They still don't know why he died, [and] it's constantly in our face," said Tim Finnerty, Cullen's father.
In other college news:
* Penn State announced that the nonconference basketball game Dec. 14 against Princeton will be played at 6,300-seat Rec Hall rather than the 15,200-seat Jordan Center.
Tennis
* The 2013 U.S. Open singles champions will earn a record $2.6 million apiece this year. Last year's singles champions, Serena Williams and Andy Murray, won $1.9 million.
* After nearly a 6-year absence, former world No. 1 Martina Hingis, 32, said she is making a comeback to the WTA Tour in doubles.
Sport Stops
* Missy Franklin earned her third gold medal of the world swimming championships in Barcelona, Spain, with a victory in the 200-meter freestyle. Franklin gave up her bid to win eight golds, scratching the 50 back so she could focus on the 200 free. Also, Colombian Orlando Duque plummeted three times from the equivalent of a nine-story building into the Barcelona harbor to be crowned the first men's high-diving world champion.
* Point guard John Wall agreed to a contract extension with the Washington Wizards that sources say is worth about $80 over 5 years.
* Ecuador striker Christian Benitez died of heart failure, according to his Qatari club El Jaish, without adding further details. The 27-year-old striker died on Monday, a day after playing his first match for his new club.