Body of former Cougar found in thicket

SAO PAULO, Brazil – The body of a former Washington State basketball player was found in a dense thicket in central Brazil, two weeks after he was reported missing.

The body of Tony Harris was slumped against a tree in an Army training ground with the shoelace from one of his sneakers wrapped around his neck, said police spokesman Norton Luiz. The body was found Sunday after police received an anonymous tip.

“We believe he may have committed suicide because it appears the body fell from one of the tree’s branches, although we are not ruling out homicide,” Luiz said.

Harris, who would have turned 37 Sunday, played on the Washington State team that reached the 1994 East Regional of the NCAA tournament. Before that he played on state championship teams at Garfield High in Seattle.

Luiz said the state of the body indicates Harris died about five days before he was found near the small town of Formosa.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Mei said the body was “so decomposed visual identification was impossible. We have asked that his fingerprints and dental records be sent from Seattle.”

Harris’ father-in-law and a family friend had arrived in Goiania, capital of Goias state, Luiz said. The body is expected to be flown back to the United States in a few days for burial.

Harris was reported missing Nov. 4, three days after his debut as a shooting guard for the Brazilian team Universo, said Jorge Bastos, a team director.

“According to some of the other players, Harris appeared to be nervous and overly anxious about something,” Bastos said. “But he never said what was bothering him.”

Witnesses say he took a long-distance taxi trip that day, but jumped out at a gas station in Formosa, “leaving behind his laptop and clothes,” town police chief Pedromar Augusto de Souza said.

He was reportedly spotted walking down a street in the town Nov. 7.