Report: Census Worker’s Death Might Not Be Homicide

A day after the leftwing blogosphere erupted with premature speculation about the death of this man in Kentucky, a report now says it's too early to say what actually happened.

Asphyxiation caused the death of a federal census worker whose body was found at a rural Clay County, Ky., cemetery with a rope around his neck, preliminary autopsy results show, but state police have not determined the death was a homicide.

William E. Sparkman, 51, of Laurel County, Ky., reportedly had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest.

That raised questions about whether he was killed because of hard feelings against the government and catapulted the mysterious death into a national story.

However, on Thursday, police had not confirmed Sparkman was even doing census work in Clay County at the time he died, said Capt. Lisa Rudzinski, commander of the state police post handling the investigation.

One media report — which quoted a census official saying a computer Sparkman used for census work was found in his truck near the cemetery — wasn’t true, Rudzinski said.

Police found Sparkman’s red pickup truck, but the computer wasn’t in it, she said.

Police have not ruled whether Sparkman’s death resulted from homicide, accident or suicide, Rudzinski said.

"There are too many unanswered questions for us to lean one way or the other," Rudzinski said. "We have not ruled this is a hate crime against a federal employee. We’re still trying to determine if foul play was involved."

The only thing police have concluded is that Sparkman didn’t die as a result of natural causes.

Reports that Sparkman was hanging from a tree at the cemetery create an image that doesn’t fit the evidence where Sparkman was found, Rudzinski said.

Sparkman had a rope around his neck that was attached to a tree, but he was not hanging in the sense that many people envision, she said.

Sparkman’s body was in contact with the ground, state police said in a news release.

News that Sparkman had the word "fed" on his chest came to the Associated Press from a law enforcement official who requested anonymity.

The official did not tell the AP what was used to scrawl the word on Sparkman.

Still, despite any evidence to back up their assertions, scores of leftwing bloggers immediately jumped to conclusions.

This report two days ago called it the next generations of lynchings.

We know that the levels of right-wing vitriol have reached psychotic new heights. But could they really be behind the "apparent homicide" of a Kentucky census worker, William Sparkman? Should we be calling this, as some are, a "lynching?"

This "respected" blogger, recently arrested on marijuana charges on Cape Cod, fretted like Nancy Pelosi.

But at some point, unhinged hostility to the federal government, whipped up by the Becks, can become violence. That's what Pelosi was worried about. The Dish will keep its eyes on this story.

Pleae do. And be sure to get back to us if you're hysteria is proven wrong.

This rockhead piled on, blaming Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Beck, Michelle Bachman, Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble, the corpse of Ronald Reagan and the founding fathers.

With all of that in mind, however, it's admittedly damned difficult not to look back at the kind of wildly-irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric being slung casually across the airwaves to millions of viewers and listeners every day by folks like Bachman, Beck, O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, and all the rest, without pondering questions such as: "What the hell are these people thinking?" and "Do they not realize that people are actually out there paying attention to what they have to say?"

Another blogger said let's not jump to conclusions, then jumped to a conclusion.

There’s not enough information yet to say for sure what was behind this killing, so let’s not jump to conclusions. But the description of the circumstances and the timing (around the time of the Washington DC tea party) raises a strong suspicion that anti-government sentiment may have been the motivation.

The memory holes around the web may be very busy in the near future.

This may well be a teachable moment: Wait until the facts are in before pointing fingers at you political enemies. It'll save a lot of embarrassment, your credibility, time spent scrubbing your website and a lot of backtracking.

The was once a time when people would let the police assess what happened and report the facts. Then pundits could offer analysis and opinion. Now, however, in the zeal to prove some deluded pre-conceived political point, the left prefers to smear their opponents using incorrect reports and wild conjecture. If indeed this is a suicide or a homicide totally unrelated to anything political, how many on the left will stand up and admit they're wrong?

Very few, I suspect.