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Investigators: Ky. census worker committed suicide

Authorities are saying a Kentucky census worker found hanging from a tree with "fed" scrawled on his chest committed suicide and staged his death to look like a homicide.

A news release from Kentucky State Police said Tuesday that Bill Sparkman died at the same location where his body was found Sept. 12 near a cemetery in a heavily wooded area of southeastern Kentucky.

A man who found the body in the Daniel Boone National Forest said the 51-year-old was bound with duct tape, gagged and had an identification badge taped to his neck.

Investigators say Sparkman acted alone in manipulating the scene to conceal the suicide.

The news release says Sparkman had recently taken out two life insurance policies that would not pay out for suicide.

www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=105858&catid=2

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Police: Census Worker Killed By Asphyxiation

BIG CREEK, Ky. — A part-time census worker found hanging in a rural Kentucky cemetery was naked, gagged and had his hands and feet bound with duct tape, said an Ohio man who discovered the body two weeks ago.

The word "fed" was written in felt-tip pen on 51-year-old Bill Sparkman's chest, but authorities have released very few other details in the case, such as whether they think it was an accident, suicide or homicide.

Jerry Weaver of Fairfield, Ohio, told The Associated Press on Friday that he was certain from the gruesome scene that someone killed Sparkman.

"He was murdered," Weaver said. "There's no doubt."

Weaver said he was in the rural Kentucky county for a family reunion and was visiting some family graves at the cemetery on Sept. 12 along with his wife and daughter when they saw the body.

"The only thing he had on was a pair of socks," Weaver said. "And they had duct-taped his hands, his wrists. He had duct tape over his eyes, and they gagged him with a red rag or something."

"And they even had duct tape around his neck," Weaver said. "And they had like his identification tag on his neck. They had it duct-taped to the side of his neck, on the right side, almost on his right shoulder."

Weaver, who works for a family topsoil business in Fairfield, said the body was about 50 yards from a 2003 Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck. He said Sparkman's clothes were in the bed of the truck.

"His tailgate was down," Weaver said. "I thought he could have been killed somewhere else and brought there and hanged up for display, or they actually could have killed him right there. It was a bad, bad scene.

"It took me three or four good nights to sleep. My 20-year-old daughter ended up sleeping in the floor in our bedroom." he said.

Although anti-government sentiment was one possibility in the death, some in law enforcement also cited the prevalence of drug activity in the area – including meth labs and marijuana fields – although they had no reason to believe there was a link to Sparkman's death.

"Now they're taking their meth lab operations into the rural, secluded areas," the sheriff said. "We've had complaints in the area, but not that particular location."

www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/25/census-worker-killed-by-a_n_299725.h
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Officials at the Census Bureau's national office in Suitland, Md., said six other fatalities of on-duty census workers have occurred since Jan., when operations for this Census began. Five died in traffic accidents and the other died of a stroke.

Numerous injuries have been reported, including one two weeks ago in which two census workers were seriously injured in a crash near Charlottesville, Va. There have also been several cases of workers being shot at or chased away by homeowners.

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