NEW ORLEANS – A former NBA and college 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. He was reportedly found in the hotel room's bathtub according to Nola.com.
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 a 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.
A police report stated that there was no forced entry at the home but that the medical examiner determined her death to be homicide caused by asphyxiation due to manual strangulation, reported Nola.com.
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.
NBA spokesman Tim Frank confirmed Raymond worked as a referee for the league from 2003-04. He was reportedly let go from the position for embellishing his resume, reported Nola.com.
Click here to read more on the story at Nola.com
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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