NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A former NBA referee shot and killed himself in a suburban New Orleans hotel room on the same day his wife was found strangled at their Houston-area home last week, authorities said Wednesday.
A law-enforcement official in Montgomery County, Texas, said Troy Raymond, 46, was a “person of interest” in the death of his wife, Leslie Anderson Raymond, whose body was discovered last Thursday at their home in Spring.
Troy Raymond’s body was discovered at a hotel in Jefferson Parish. The coroner’s office said he shot himself in the head.
Tim Holifield, a Montgomery County constable, said that Raymond hasn’t been named a suspect in his 41-year-old wife’s killing and it’s premature to connect their deaths.
“At this point, to call him anything other than a person of interest post-mortem would be unfair and improper,” Holifield said.
Raymond was an NBA referee during the 2003-04 season and more recently has refereed college basketball games, including for the Sun Belt Conference.
Holifield said a relative of Leslie Anderson Raymond found her body Thursday afternoon and called for help. Investigators were still at the home when they learned from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office that Troy Raymond’s body had been found at a Westwego hotel that afternoon after a housekeeper heard a gunshot.
Troy Raymond’s sister, Aqucinette Matthews, told Jefferson Parish investigators that her brother was having “marital problems” and had said he “needed to split up” with his wife, according to a sheriff’s department report.
Holifield said investigators were seeking cell phone records that may help “fill in a lot of gaps” in the probe.
“We have no witnesses,” he said.
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Associated Press sports writer Brett Martel in New Orleans contributed to this report.
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