MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The home of Alabama booster Logan Young was so splattered with blood that police initially thought they were looking at multiple crime scenes.
Young was dead and police quickly launched a homicide investigation.
But as it turned out, there was no crime at all and Young, who drew national attention last year because of a football recruiting scandal, was dead from an accidental fall and a gushing head wound.
Fatally hurt, the 65-year-old millionaire apparently stumbled in a daze through at least a half-dozen rooms spreading blood throughout his spacious, two-story house before a final collapse on a bedroom floor.
Head wounds can leave sufferers so confused that they do not realize how seriously they are hurt, said Shelly Timmons, chief neurosurgeon at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis.
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"They'll be walking and talking and moving about but their brains are not functioning properly," Timmons said. "They may not know what to do about the bleeding or to even call for help, because they're too confused."
Police Lt. Joe Scott said it took a while for investigators to realize that the blood spread through Young's stone Tudor residence was his alone.
Initially, they thought it was from at least two people.
Investigators identified what they thought were four separate crime scenes — particularly bloody areas where violence had occurred. But eventually, Scott said, they began to "notice a pattern development in each of the four scenes — and that was a lack of any struggle."
No blood was splattered on the walls or ceiling, which would be expected if someone had been swinging a club, knife or other weapon.
"We started to put the whole picture in perspective," Scott said.
Young had a single, large gash on his head, which matched with the bloody end of an iron railing post on stairs leading to his bedroom. There were no signs of a break-in and no valuables reported missing.
Police said they believe Young died late Monday night or early Tuesday morning after falling on the stairs and hitting his head on the railing. At a news conference Thursday, they displayed drawings depicting what they believe was the bloody trail he left through the house.
The medical examiner also issued a preliminary report listing the cause of death as a head injury suffered in a fall, and the chief state prosecutor in Memphis agreed.
Young was convicted last year on money laundering and conspiracy charges for paying a high school coach to send a top recruit from Memphis to Alabama.
He was sentenced to six months in prison but was free pending appeal. He had a kidney transplant after the trial and was on a health improvement program.
