A former top Bill Clinton adviser's death was ruled a suicide after authorities discovered his body hanging from a tree with a gunshot wound to his chest.
The classification, which came nine months after the death of Mark Middleton, raised doubts over his mysterious passing as no weapon has yet to be found that caused the injury to his chest. The 59-year-old was found dead last year in May at the Heifer Ranch in Perryville, Arkansas.
Mysterious Death
Authorities released a copy of the report regarding the finding after it was held up by members of the deceased's family who petitioned a judge. They said they were worried that the photographs officials took of the scene would be made public.
Eventually, the judge ruled that while the report could go public, authorities could not include any pictures of the gory scene. Perry County Sheriff's Deputy Jeremy Lawson was the one who wrote the report that said he was called by a ranch worker, identified as Samantha McElroy, who was the one that found the abandoned black BMW SUV of Middleton, as per Daily Mail.
The 46-year-old ranch worker, after finding the car, then walked around a cottage on the ranch. Lawson wrote in his report that McElroy immediately started yelling after stepping around the corner of the cottage.
When she reached the back of the cottage, she quickly pointed toward the rear of the property and asked whether it was a person's body. McElroy said that she first thought a man was sitting near a tree, but as she focused her eyes, she noticed some rope from the tree's limb to the man.
Lawson said that Middleton was dead when the ranch worker discovered his body. The deputy said that he found a gunshot wound to the deceased's chest and had a knot tied in an extension cord around his neck attached to the limb of the tree directly above him.
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A Potential Coverup?
The report also noted that officers located a gun case and three boxes of buckshot inside Middleton's BMW SUV but failed to find the weapon used in the incident. The 59-year-old, who served in the Clinton White House in the 1990s, worked for his family's HVAC business years before, according to the New York Post.
But as a top adviser to the former president, he enjoyed a high-flying lifestyle. Middleton also signed the late Jeffrey Epstein into the White House seven out of 17 times. The former Clinton adviser reportedly flew on Epstein's "Lolita Express" jet.
In 1996, Middleton's administrative access was curtailed after it was determined during an investigation that he abused his connections to become an "international dealmaker." The decision was made a year after he left the White House.
Despite the suicide ruling, a close associate of Middleton said the former Clinton adviser was brutally murdered. The associate, who requested to stay anonymous, said that the incident had become an Arkansas state coverup, said Radar Online.
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