Gun found near Dennehy body site

Texas authorities say 9mm pistol recovered probably isn't murder weapon, though

? Investigators recovered a 9mm pistol near the body of Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy, but they believe he was killed with another gun that has yet to be found, a law enforcement official said Monday.

Searchers also collected shell casings in a secluded, weed-choked field southeast of Waco, Texas. What appeared to be Dennehy’s shoes were found near his body, said the official, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, former teammate Carlton Dotson, who has been charged with Dennehy’s murder, has refused to take any medications and was to meet with a psychiatrist Monday afternoon, said his lawyer, Grady Irvin Jr.

He told Court TV that Dotson’s behavior since his arrest on a murder charge in his home state of Maryland has included periodic signs of mental illness. His family has said his behavior was erratic and delusional before Dennehy was reported missing June 19.

In other developments:

Dennehy’s funeral will take place later this week or early next week at Jubilee Christian Center, a Pentecostal church in San Jose, Calif., said pastor Dick Bernal.

He said Dennehy’s mother wanted the services and burial to be in San Jose because Dennehy was happiest there and because the Bay Area was his home.

Baylor will hold a campuswide memorial service for Dennehy in September, after most students return from summer break.

McLennan County sheriff’s department investigators continued searching the rural gravel pit where Dennehy’s badly decomposed body was found during the weekend. Searchers are using metal detectors in hopes of recovering more shell casings and other possible evidence.

Authorities in Waco said it could be several days before the Dallas County medical examiner, who conducted an autopsy, returns a preliminary ruling on the cause of Dennehy’s death.

Sheriff’s Capt. Paul Wash said no official information would be released Monday on the cause of Dennehy’s death. He also declined to say what other evidence was found in the nearby field — several hundred acres dotted by gravel washes and pits and dense weed thickets.

A law enforcement official involved in the case said what has been recovered there suggests that Dennehy died in a clearing in the middle of the field of head-high sunflowers, weed and Johnson grass. The official said it appears that his body was then somehow moved 15 or 20 feet into the weeds to hide it from view of a narrow dirt track.

After that, he said, “it appeared that varmints had moved” parts of the body some more.

The 9 mm pistol was found near the body, the official said, but it is not believed to be the murder weapon. The shoes were also recovered near the body.

Other investigators have said Dennehy’s clothing had largely disintegrated, with pieces of what appeared to be a shirt covering the upper body and smaller cloth fragments from his other clothing scattered nearby.