MEMPHIS, TENN. (AP) - Former NBA player Lorenzen Wright died in late July after being shot at least five times, an autopsy report released Wednesday showed.
Bullet fragments lodged in Wright’s skull, chest and right forearm, indicating five shots, the medical examiner’s report showed. The report did not exclude the possibility of additional gunshot wounds to the body, which was found in woods in suburban Memphis on July 28.
Wright, 34, had been missing for 10 days when his body was found. No arrests have been made in the months since the slaying, and Memphis police haven’t offered a motive or suspects.
The autopsy, first reported by WMC-TV, was conducted by authorities in Shelby County, which includes Memphis. The report said the body was badly decomposed and weighed 57 pounds when discovered. The 6-foot-11 Wright’s playing weight was around 225 pounds.
The report does not indicate when Wright was shot or when he had died.
Wright’s mother, Deborah Marion, told The Associated Press that she didn’t want to see the report.
“I just want to remember him as he was, living in one piece, not shot up,” Marion said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
Wright, a 6-foot-11 forward-center, played with five teams during his 13-year NBA career. He averaged 8 points and 6.3 rebounds in 779 career NBA games, last playing for Cleveland in the 2008-2009 season.
Wright had been living in Smyrna, Ga., but visited his six children frequently in Memphis and still had close ties to the city. He went to high school in Memphis, attended the University of Memphis and played for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies. The Memphis City Council last month approved a $5,000 reward for information leading to conviction of Wright’s killer or killers.
Wright’s former wife, Sherra Wright, has told investigators that she last saw her ex-husband on the night of July 18. Hours later, police dispatchers received a 911 call from Wright’s cell phone and heard noises like gunshots before the call was dropped.
Marion said she believes her son’s body was left in the woods sometime around the time when dispatchers in the Memphis suburb of Germantown received the call early July 19.
Dispatchers said they didn’t alert patrol officers or commanders to the call because they couldn’t confirm that it came from their jurisdiction. Friends and family of Wright accused authorities of dragging their feet in the days after Wright went missing.
Marion said she hopes for an arrest before the winter holidays.
“I want it solved before Christmas because he has six kids,” Marion said. “It would be a great Christmas present for his six kids.”
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