The family of US actor David Carradine has asked the FBI to help investigate his death after his body was found in a hotel closet in Thailand’s capital with a rope tied to his neck, wrist and genitals.
Carradine’s family does not believe he committed suicide and is troubled by conflicting accounts about the circumstances of his death, Mark Geragos, an attorney for brother Keith Carradine, told CNN’s Larry King late Friday.
“They want an investigation,” Geragos said. “I would think that the people in Bangkok would want to support an investigation and allow the FBI to go over there and assist in the investigation so we can get the answers to the questions.”
Thai police said yesterday they have not been contacted by the FBI.
Police initially said Carradine’s body was found “naked, hanging in a closet,” causing them to suspect he committed suicide, though no suicide note was found.
On Friday, however, police said the actor may have died from accidental suffocation or heart failure after revealing that he was found with a rope tied around his neck and penis — leading to speculation that Carradine may have engaged in a dangerous form of sex play.
The results of an autopsy performed on Friday in Bangkok were not expected for at least three weeks, said Nanthana Sirisap, director of Chulalongkorn Hospital’s Autopsy Center.
Carradine’s body was flown out of Bangkok early yesterday on a United Airlines flight bound for Los Angeles via Tokyo, according to local media and an airport official, who refused to be identified because she was not authorized to speak to the media. The US embassy would not confirm those details.
Pornthip Rojanasunand, director of Thailand’s Central Institute of Forensic Science, said the circumstances under which Carradine died suggest the 72-year-old actor may have been performing auto-erotic asphyxiation. The practice involves temporarily cutting off the supply of oxygen to the brain to heighten the effects of a sexual climax.
“In some cases it can suggest murder, too. But sometimes when the victim is naked and in bondage, it can suggest that the victim is doing it to himself,” said Pornthip, considered the country’s top criminal forensics expert.
She did not take part in the autopsy.
“If you hang yourself by the neck, you don’t need so much pressure to kill yourself,” she said. “Those who get highly sexually aroused tend to forget this fact.”
Carradine’s body was discovered on Thursday morning in his luxury suite by a chambermaid at Bangkok’s Swissotel Nai Lert Park Hotel, said its general manager, Aurelio Giraudo.
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