Suicide a possibility in basketball star's reported death, say Brazilian police

A police spokesman in Brazil says they suspect suicide in the reported death of former Seattle basketball star Tony Harris, The Associated Press reported.

The spokesman, Norton Luiz, says the shoelace from one of his sneakers was around his neck when the body was found Sunday at the base of a tree, as if it fell from the branches. He also says police are not ruling out homicide.

An anonymous tip led police to find the body in a wooded area at an Army training ground near the town of Formosa, about 50 miles from the capital of Brasília.

"Brazilian authorities believe the body matches Mr. Harris' description," said U.S. Consul-General Simon Henshaw in Brazil, however he said the identity of the body has still not been confirmed.

Harris' wife's stepfather, Guy Pace, who flew to Brazil on Saturday, went to Goiânia in central-western Brazil to identify the body. He was unable to identify the body because it was so badly decomposed, said Henshaw.

Harris, a former Garfield High School and Washington State University basketball player, had been missing in Brazil for nearly two weeks. Lori Harris, his wife, said recently that only days after arriving in Brazil her husband had talked about being anxious and wanting to come home.

FBI spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs in Seattle said Brazilian law-enforcement officials notified an FBI agent assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Brazil that Harris' body had been found at an outdoor location. Burroughs said she didn't know details about where the body was found or the cause of death.

Harris was tentatively identified based on the body's physical description and clothing, Burroughs said.

The FBI agent in Brazil planned to visit the scene today with Brazilian investigators, Burroughs said. The FBI was monitoring the investigation being conducted by Brazilian authorities.

The FBI spent several hours at the Kent home of Harris' wife on Sunday, according to Connie Pace, Tony Harris' mother-in-law. The phones had been busy all day with questions and reports about Harris, she said.

"We don't know anything except that they did find a young man dead. They did not confirm that it was him," said Pace, who said Tony Harris would have turned 37 on Sunday.

Pace called the last two weeks "horrendous."

"We have just been trying to keep it together," she said. "You don't ever realize, when you hear things like this on the news, what is happening with people. You think, 'Oh, that must be awful.' You have no idea what it is to live it.

"The biggest thing for us is we need some answers. Of course we want him to come home alive. But knowing is better than never knowing."

She said the family's strong religious faith has kept them going. "We know we have people praying for him all over the world," she said. "He is blanketed in prayer."

Harris left Seattle on Oct. 31 to play basketball for a professional team in Brasília. He had previously played in Brazil for several years. The former Cougar guard, who helped lead WSU to the NCAA tournament in 1994, had most recently worked at a juvenile-detention center but was recently laid off, his wife said.

Harris was supposed to return to Washington for a visit next month. Lori Harris is pregnant, and the couple's child is due in December.

Lori Harris, in an interview last week, said her husband had sounded anxious in his first phone call to her after arriving in Brazil.

The last time he had played in Brazil, "he didn't leave on good terms," she said. "He heard that his old coach said some things that were not true, [things] that could put him at risk."

Harris couldn't leave because the team was holding his passport, she said, so he planned to stay with a friend in northern Brazil and wait for a replacement.

Henshaw, of the U.S. embassy, said that the team collected identification documents, including Harris' passport, before a game. In Brazil, teams are required to show identification documents of players to game officials, he said.

Lori Harris said she last heard from her husband about two weeks ago, when he was on the way to the friend's house.

He used a Brazilian taxi driver's cellphone on his last call to his wife. He told her he loved her and would talk to her later, she recalled.

Steve Miletich: 206-464-3302 or smiletich@seattletimes.com. Seattle Times desk editor Raquel Comerford contributed to this story, which includes material from The Associated Press.