Two weeks after reported missing, a former Washington State University basketball star was found dead in Brazil by the local police. The body of Tony Harris was found in a small town in central Brazil, police said on Monday.
According to a police spokeswoman, his body was hanging from a three nearby an Army training ground in Formosa, a town about 45 minutes outside Brasilia, Brazil’s capital. The Brazilian police were tipped by an anonymous source about the location of the American’s corpse.
The spokeswoman, who chose to remain anonymous, said the basketball player committed suicide but have not ruled out homicide. A family member who traveled to Brazil from the United States will be shown the body on Monday for identification, the U.S. Embassy said.
Harris was a basketball player and was playing for Universo, a professional club from Brasilia, the country's capital. His absence was reported on Nov. 4 just a few days after his debut as a shooting guard for Universo, said Jorge Bastos, one of the team’s directors.
"According to some of the other players, Harris appeared to be nervous and overly anxious about something. But he never said what was bothering him," Bastos said in a telephone interview.
The 36-year-old also played for the 1994 WSU and helped them reach the East Regionals of the NCAA tournament. Harris also played on state championship teams at Garfield High School in Seattle. After graduating from college he played in Asia and South America and eventually joined his last team – Universo.
Harris has played for teams including: AEL Limassol, Uberlandia, PBC CSKA Moscow, Papagou Athens and the Guaros de Lara, Venezuela. He was the 2003 Liga Sudamericana MVP.