This story about the missing college basketball player certainly looks promising. Baylor University's Patrick Dennehy disappeared two weeks ago in Texas. His SUV, menawhile, turned up in a Virginia Beach parking lot minus the license plates. There are a number of rumors swirling around this case, and the available facts are murky at best. Still, it appears that he was killed by a jealous teammate whose own position on the team was threatened by Dennehy. As one talking head on Fox News put it, "It's like Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan taken to the Nth degree." Adding fuel to that line of thinking is that the suspect player, Carlton Dotson (technically still only a "person of interest"), was found at his family's home in Maryland, only 150 miles from where the SUV was found.
The case comes along at a good time. In this post 9-11 world of ours, plagued by a near constant stream of bad news out of Iraq, America is starved for a juicy celebrity murder trial.
We really haven't had one since the Chandra Levy case dominated headlines two summers ago. And if you think about it, that one really was the perfect crime: An attractive young woman, apparently knocked off by her Congressman lover who was old enough to be her grandfather. This combination of sex, power, and murder was irresistable to a voyeuristic society such as ours.
Some people foolishly pinned their hopes on Robert Blake last year, but that was a waste of time. Granted, that situation looked promising on the surface: Actor murders his weasel wife. But the unfortunate fact is that Blake is a washed up actor, and has been for the last 20 years. And the dead wife? About as attractive as a groundhog in heat. Consequently, the general public just couldn't get into it.
Admittedly, the Dennehy case is not entirely without some drawbacks. For one, it lacks the sexual draw (hopefully, anyway). Also, both the victim and the principle "suspected suspect" are black, so there are no racial overtones present as in the O.J. case. But it does involve professional jealousy taken to a horrible, tragically extreme level, and that's a good thing. And the fact that both names begin with the same letter (Dennehy and Dotson) helps as well. Alliteration is always a plus, helping the names roll off the tongue.
The absence of a body further adds to the aura of mystery. Would the Lacy Peterson murder have gotten as much attention if her body had washed up on shore the first day? No, of course not. The lack of a corpse gives the story legs, allows speculation to build, and the corresponding overexposure in the media gives it needed time to evolve into a saga.
So unless Michael Jackson decides to knock off Lisa Marie, we'll have to make do with Dennehy and Dotson.