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Police Say Chris Kelly Death Was Suicide

 

Police in the south Chicago suburb of Country Club Hills say their investigation into the death of a friend and fundraiser for former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is essentially over. They believe Chris Kelly committed suicide.

Police say that when Chris Kelly swallowed a bunch of pain killers last Friday, it was his second suicide attempt that week.

They say Kelly has also tried to take his life last Tuesday night, just hours after pleading guilty in federal court to bid rigging. Kelly was due to enter prison this Friday to start a three-year tax fraud sentence.

Country Club Hills Police Chief Regina Evans said Tuesday that "based on all the information and the witnesses we know to be involved, we have no other investigation right now unless the toxicology report comes back to be something unexpected."

After attempting suicide last Friday, police say Kelly contacted his girlfriend who picked him up in the parking lot of a lumber yard in Country Club Hills.

She took him to the hospital but he died Saturday morning.

Kelly had been indicted three times by federal prosecutors who hoped to pressure him into testifying against Blagojevich.

(Additional reporting by the Associated Press).