Feds probe the tragic death (and life) of Prince

As a federal probe into the tragic death of superstar Prince broadens to include the DEA, some super sad facts about his life are also emerging.

Almost two weeks after the 57-year-old entertainer was found alone and "unresponsive" at his Minneapolis mansion and pronounced dead by paramedics, an official cause of death still hasn't been declared.

Suicide or foul play, though, has been quietly ruled out, as law enforcement focuses instead on his history of pill-popping and "such things as where the medications came from and what prescriptions Prince had obtained."

Amid addiction, AIDS and bankruptcy rumors, it's widely believed Prince died from an inadvertent overdose brought on by decades of substance abuse and a host of health issues he'd been battling for years.

Those close to the gaunt 5-foot-3 musician say he suffered debilitating hip problems caused by a lifetime of wearing and performing in platform shoes, and had begun self-medicating early in his career to "conquer" stage fright and epilepsy.

They also revealed that Prince was diagnosed HIV positive back in the 1990s and that recently his medical condition had developed into full blown AIDS.

The incurable disease -- coupled with drug addiction -- not only left him disoriented, paranoid, emaciated and unable keep down food, but reportedly created a shocking picture of an already dying man:

"His face was yellowish," one unnamed source told the National Enquirer over the weekend. "The skin on his neck was hanging off and the tips of his fingers were a brownish-yellow."

On the night preceding Prince's sudden death episode, he had driven miles from his Paisley Park home to fill an illegal prescription for painkillers under one of many false names created for him so to "avoid a paper trail."

That long and winding pathway to death is now the subject of a criminal investigation which could see some of his private physicians and closest associates eventually held accountable.

Complicating matters further, the chronically ailing and reclusive rock-star made no Last Will and Testament, although he had several family members who could have been named as heirs, including a blood sister. 

Consequently, legal experts are warning it will "take years" to sort out Prince's multimillion-dollar business holdings and personal estate, the values of which could steadily diminish while his relatives slug it out in a courtroom.

As they start lining up to do just that, police continue this month to pore over the dead celebrity's once-very private affairs and collect more physical evidence in his high-profile death inquiry.

Autopsy and toxicology tests were completed by the last week of April, but those results are still pending.

EPONYMOUS ROX

CSI SUNDAY: Trayvon Martin, Odin Lloyd, Skylar Neese

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THEIRS WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?

 

Killing Killers' CSI Sunday series spotlights three not-so-friendly friends making the top crime stories for the week ending June 30th, 2013.

 

 

Apart from being brutally murdered, Trayvon Martin, Odin Lloyd and Skylar Neese have something else in common, and perhaps in their horrific deaths is a lesson we all could learn from. Albeit a hard one...

 

In retrospect, say the parents of Neese, a pretty 16-year-old who disappeared in July of 2012 only to be discovered some six months later slain by her two best friends, the warning signs were glaring:

 

First, there was the formation of a tight but toxic bond with the very girls who would plot and perpetrate her stabbing death, and who, in advance, had already severed the once-popular A-student from her other classmates.

 

Second, was the emergence of a double but brief life that included deception and deviousness and began with the seemingly harmless teenage ritual of sneaking out a bedroom window.

 

Third, troubles were developing which involved the threesome's numerous late-night joyrides and, invariably, the police.

 

But all Mr. and Mrs. Neese had wanted to do in showing their daughter Skylar such leniency was to give the growing child a sense of freedom, they said.

 

Freedom to come and go -- to be trusted -- is an essential rite of passage into maturity, but, as this now-grieving couple discovered much too late, in excess it can sometimes turn deadly.

 

At age 27, however, Odin Lloyd was an adult and therefore it's safe to assume well past growing pains and angst. So his being shot to death by sports-celebrity friend Aaron Hernandez would appear, on its face, rather unexpected.

 

Except when it becomes clear that Lloyd already knew that the pro-footballer he was so enamored with had longstanding gang ties and a predilection for extreme acts of violence.

 

Indeed, investigators now suspect that Lloyd's gangland-style execution may have been orchestrated by Hernandez and his notorious cronies, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, because the victim had knowledge of this trios' role in a previous drive-by shooting.

 

If that's true, then Lloyd didn't need deep insight or a crystal ball to gauge whether his relationship with this criminally bent crew could leave him seriously maimed or dead.

 

On the other hand, Trayvon Martin, gunned down by a rabid neighborhood watchman at the tender age of 17, fared much better at the hands of his friends.

 

At least in life anyway.

 

Now, as the trial against his killer George Zimmerman progresses, some critics are complaining that Martin's star witness and childhood confident is anything but an asset to him when she's sitting on the witness stand.

 

Some beg to differ though, saying the supposedly outlandish impudence of 19-year-old Rachel Jeantel and her mumbling patois which spectators find so incomprehensible and annoying is simply a "cultural thing."

 

That culture clash underscores the crux of the issue subtly being tried, still others are attempting to explain. Because, before justice for a butchered boy can be meted out here, the world evidently needs to know first: Who was the bigger racist, the victim or his "ass-cracking" attacker?

 

Of course, this banal debate, generated by Ms. Jeantel's sudden *eccentricity" when placed in a white-dominated judicial setting, also overshadows the obvious -- the young lady's courage and loyalty.

 

But each of the three cases featured this week on Killing Killers' CSI Sunday wrap-up definitely prove that the old adage about choosing your pals wisely still holds true today.

 

Friendship really matters. Whether you're alive or dead. 

 

EPONYMOUS ROX  

 

ARMED AND DANGEROUS: Ernest Wallace wanted for killing Odin Lloyd

UPDATE 2:30 PM 6/28/13: Suspect captured in Florida.

- noontime alert below -

 

Police have issued a bulletin for Ernest Wallace, 41, considered to be armed and dangerous and a fugitive from justice in the murder of Odin Lloyd.

 

Wallace is being actively sought at this hour as shooter #3 in the execution of Lloyd on June 17, 2013. Done at the behest of former NFL superstar Aaron Hernandez who is himself being held without bond now in a Massachusetts jail.

 

Ernest Wallace, aka 'Bo' and/or 'Fish', is dark skinned with a heavy build. He is believed to have fled in a silver or gray 2012 Chrysler 300 with Rhode Island registration number 451-375.

 

Police are asking the public to be on the lookout for this individual.

 

CAUTION: The suspect has a criminal history, is considered  armed and dangerous, and felony warrants have been issued for his arrest in assisting Aaron Hernandez and Carlos Ortiz in the murder of Odin Lloyd.

 

If anyone has any information regarding Wallace's current whereabouts, or recognizes him and/or the vehicle he was last seen driving, they are asked to immediately call the North Attleborough Police Department at (508) 695-1212.

 

This story is developing - bookmark page for all updates

 

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CAREER KILLERS: Aaron Hernandez and Paula Deen

UPDATE June 24, 2013: As Paula Deen graciously accepts the Food Network's axe, Aaron Hernandez elusively allows his home to be searched again. This time with a team of K-9s.

That search now includes the waters of a nearby pond, although precisely what the divers are looking for in there, investigators haven't said.

The embroiled chef and footballer are still garnering major media attention this week as everybody wonders what stunts the pair of self-saboteurs will pull next.

For Deen, there was nothing else to do in the aftermath of her career meltdown but publicly and humbly bow out from the TV gig she's held for most of decade. Except, perhaps, to pry her foot out of her mouth when nobody's looking.

She's rescheduled last week's abruptly canceled interview with Matt Lauer on the Today show for this Wednesday ... we'll see then how she's progressed.

Hernandez on the other hand is a total wildcard still, and the investigation into the execution-style murder of his pal Odin Lloyd -- once the New England Patriots' most diehard fan -- enters a full week now without the threatened arrest being realized.

Police acknowledged days ago that they've issued a 'paper warrant' to bring the star athlete into custody for at least obstructing justice, although it's clear he had some role in the killing itself, too. But they haven't done even this much yet.

Of course, any average Joe would be in handcuffs by now, sitting his felonious butt in jail. And that's something which would've happened in only a matter of hours, as everybody also knows.

But fame has many hidden perks, obviously. Together with a price.

[find these 2 original breaking stories for June 22, 2013 below]

Top awards for killing one's lucrative career go to Aaron Hernandez and Paula Deen this week. Two celebrities who've made the headlines by demonstrating they're not only their own worst enemies, but unworthy of endorsements too:

 

 

For the talented but troubled Hernandez, the Patriots' famed tight end who's now hopelessly mired himself in murder, Mayhem has evidently been his middle name, both on and off the field, ever since boyhood.

 

But like many other jocks with similar tendencies he's always managed to wriggle out of past offenses, mainly because of his knack with a football.

 

This time, however, the 23-year-old has gone too far and Massachusetts police have confirmed they've issued Aaron Hernandez  a 'paper' warrant for his arrest, in an effort to get him to cooperate with them.

 

Detectives have been trying to question the stonewalling star athlete all week in connection with the homicide of his drinking buddy Odin Lloyd, 27, who was found shot to death execution style in a park less than a mile from Hernandez's North Attleborough mansion.

 

The two men had been partying throughout the weekend and were close friends, so it's not clear exactly what went wrong between them, although Hernandez has long been known for a short fuse, rash behavior, and a gun fetish.

 

Making matters even murkier are the criminal acts  he's said to have engaged in immediately following the killing -- destruction of a home security video system and a smashed cell phone -- for which he'll now have to answer to obstruction of justice charges.

 

Police issuing an arrest warrant on those preliminary counts say Hernandez also hired a cleaning crew to do a major scrub down of his lavish residence shortly after Lloyd's dumped body was found by a jogger.

 

Hernandez's suspicious conduct has placed in jeopardy a multi-million-dollar contract he just signed with the Patriots team, and at least one corporate sponsor has backed out of their lucrative arrangement with him as well...

 

Paula Deen and Southern discomfort

 

It's not a crime to use the N word, unfortunately, but, as the hospitality hostess with the mostest has just learned, it's not very prudent either.

 

And in Deen's case her much too frequent use of the racial slur is nothing she can easily refute, since the source of these career-careening revelations is none other than her own sworn deposition.

 

That's just cost the world-renown meals maven, famous for her down-home cooking and distinctive Southern drawl, a cushy job with the Food Network.

 

To Deen's credit, however, she did profusely apologize and beg forgiveness, both on television and via social network accounts. Still, for her aghast employer and many millions of disgusted fans worldwide that PR move proved too little too late.

 

It's not known what motivated these damaging disclosures about Deen's less than appetizing prejudices, but usually 'outing' someone in this manner is retaliatory -- the ex-TV chef and cookbook author is currently entangled in a discrimination suit brought by a former employee, and that litigation is where the damning documents originate...

 

Fame can be fleeting, many in the limelight have sadly discovered. But for a few, like Hernandez and Deen, when that status is justifiably yanked away, infamy takes its place.

 

 

EPONYMOUS ROX