Ex-Olympian Commits Suicide
Robert Howard had two dreams: becoming a doctor and winning an Olympic medal. He came close to achieving both. He made the finals in the triple jump twice, in Atlanta eight years ago and again in Sydney in 2000. This year was to be his last in medical school.
Then, early Saturday, just as the Summer Games were getting under way in Athens, Howard leaped to his death -- from a dormitory next to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, dressed in blood-splattered surgical scrubs.
Police surmise the blood was that of Howard's wife, Dr. Robin Mitchell, whose body was found when officers went to notify her of her husband's death. She had been stabbed nearly 50 times.
Howard, 28, left a rambling note apologising for his perceived failures but no mention of having killed his wife. Yet, investigators are calling the deaths a murder-suicide. ``This may be a case that we never know,'' Sgt. Terry Hastings said on Tuesday. ``Probably, the two people who can tell us are dead.''
Mitchell, 31, was chief neuro-surgery resident at the medical school's teaching hospital and herself a track star in her hometown of Newburgh, N.Y., about 75 miles north of New York City.
Howard was a third-year medical student whose athleticism was proven. The Pawtucket, R.I., native was a 10-time NCAA champion at Arkansas, earning titles in the indoor and outdoor long jump and triple jump. And, of course, he had finished seventh and eighth in his Olympic appearances. But there was more to the man described by his friends as a superb athlete with great intelligence who kept somewhat to himself.
Police reports and newspaper accounts reveal Howard had a temper. In 1995, he was arrested for threatening his then-girlfriend. The woman said she was afraid Howard would hurt her, and the charge against him was dropped when she decided not to pursue it.
In Fayetteville, where Howard did his undergraduate work, police records show he was arrested several times, including once in 1998 for allegedly pulling a gun on another man during an argument over a woman. The disposition of that charge was unclear.
Howard was accepted into medical school in 1999 but decided to wait a year so he could devote his energy to the Sydney Games. ``I want to start that part of my life, but I'm not ready yet,'' Howard said of medical school in a 2000 interview with The Associated Press from Australia. ``First, I want to jump 57-5 or 57-9 at the games. That's what I want now.''
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