Death pics upset Carradine family

LOS ANGELES – David Carradine’s family members, dissatisfied with Thai investigators and ‘profoundly disturbed’ by the publication of a forensics photo in a Bangkok tabloid, are seeking help from the FBI and an independent pathologist and have threatened legal action against any media outlet that reprints images of the actor in death.

Keith Carradine has filed reports with the FBI that could lead to the agency’s involvement, said Mark Geragos, attorney for the ‘Kung Fu’ actor’s half-brother. The FBI confirmed that Carradine’s family had contacted the agency.
The family will also seek an independent autopsy by famed forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden to determine whether another person could have been involved, Geragos said. Results of an autopsy performed on Friday in Bangkok were not expected for at least three weeks.
A chambermaid found Carradine’s body on Thursday at Bangkok’s Swissotel Nai Lert Park Hotel. Thai authorities said they have all but ruled out foul play, based on surveillance footage and interviews with hotel staff that indicate no one was in Carradine’s room before he died, said Colonel Somprasong Yenthuam, who is heading the investigation.
A grainy photo published on the Saturday cover of the tabloid Thai Rath shows a naked body suspended from a clothes bar in a hotel closet, hands apparently bound together above the head and feet on the floor. The face is blacked out and other areas are obscured.
The paper did not indicate the source of the image, but Thai police said they believed it was a picture of Carradine’s body taken by a forensics team.
Keith Carradine said in a statement that the family was ‘profoundly disturbed by the release in Thailand of photographs taken at the scene of David Carradine’s death,’ and threatened legal action against further distribution.
Geragos said the family decided to intervene because of conflicting information about Carradine’s death and a lack of direct information from Thai authorities.
Investigators initially said Carradine’s body was found ‘naked, hanging in a closet’, causing them to suspect he had taken his own life. But his family, friends and representatives have said they doubt the 72-year-old actor would have killed himself.
Police later said the actor may have died from accidental suffocation or heart failure after revealing that he was found with a rope tied around his wrist, neck and genitals – leading to speculation that Carradine may have engaged in a dangerous form of sex play known as auto-erotic asphyxiation.
A martial arts practitioner himself, Carradine was best known for the US TV series ‘Kung Fu’, which aired from 1972-75. – Nampa-AP