See the "The Harris County Medical Examiners Office......" para below..... It appears to be the basis for what I heard.... Not as definitive as the TV news report ... which emphasized that "homicide" was still a possible finding.......guru.....
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/12/business/12BAXT.html?pagewanted=print&posi tion=top April 12, 2002 'I Just Can't Go On,' Ex-Officer Wrote By JIM YARDLEY UGAR LAND, Tex., April 11 - In a pained handwritten note, J. Clifford Baxter, the former Enron vice chairman, described himself as tormented and ashamed but did not mention the Enron scandal or whether it was leading him to take his own life. "I am so sorry for this," Mr. Baxter wrote to his wife, Carol, in the note, which the Sugar Land police released today. "I feel I just can't go on. I have always tried to do the right thing but where there once was great pride now its gone. I love you and the children so much. "I just can't be any good to you or myself. The pain is overwhelming. "Please try to forgive me. "Cliff." Early on the morning of Jan. 25, Mr. Baxter was found dead from a single gunshot wound to the head. His body was discovered inside his parked Mercedes-Benz a few blocks from his home in a subdivision of Sugar Land, an affluent suburb of Houston. The Harris County Medical Examiner's office has ruled his death a suicide, though the Sugar Land police have left the case open, awaiting results on what officials described as routine tests involving DNA and ballistic information. A police spokesman said today that the case was expected to be closed early next week. The existence of the note had generated much speculation about whether Mr. Baxter had offered any details about Enron. He had retired from the company in May 2001, about seven months before Enron filed for bankruptcy protection. Former colleagues said Mr. Baxter had criticized some of the accounting practices conducted by the former chief financial officer, Andrew S. Fastow, whose off-balance-sheet partnerships later contributed to the company's collapse. Colleagues also said that Mr. Baxter had clashed with Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former chief executive, though Mr. Skilling testified before Congress in February that the two had been close friends. In the days and weeks before his death, Mr. Baxter had been named a defendant in at least one civil lawsuit filed against officers of the company, and Congressional investigators had subpoenaed him to testify. The Sugar Land police department released the note late this morning after the state attorney general ruled that it and other related documents should be made public under the Texas Open Records Act. Within hours, a state judge issued a temporary restraining order on the release of the documents after a motion was filed by Mr. Baxter's wife. The order came too late to prevent the release of the note. A hearing will be held in the next 14 days to determine whether other items, including a police report and photographs taken at the scene, will be released. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company | Privacy Information
