LOS ANGELES — David Carradine’s family members, dissatisfied with Thai investigators and “profoundly disturbed” by the publication of a forensics photo in a Bangkok tabloid, are seeking help from the FBI and an independent pathologist and have threatened legal action against any media outlet that reprints images of the actor in death.
Keith Carradine has filed reports with the FBI that could lead to the agency’s involvement, said Mark Geragos, attorney for the “Kung Fu” actor’s half-brother. The FBI confirmed that Carradine’s family had contacted the agency, but said the agency generally only gets involved in death investigations overseas if a crime is suspected.
The family will also seek an independent autopsy by famed forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden to determine whether another person could have been involved, Geragos said. Results of an autopsy performed Friday in Bangkok were not expected for at least three weeks.
Carradine’s body was found Thursday at Bangkok’s Swissotel Nai Lert Park Hotel. Thai authorities said they have all but ruled out foul play, based on surveillance footage and interviews with hotel staff that indicate no one was in Carradine’s room before he died.
Investigators initially said Carradine’s body was found “naked, hanging in a closet,” causing them to suspect he had taken his own life. But his family, friends and representatives have said they doubt the 72-year-old actor would have killed himself.
Police later said the actor may have died from accidental suffocation or heart failure after revealing that he was found with a rope tied around his wrist, neck and genitals — leading to speculation that Carradine may have engaged in sex play known as auto-erotic asphyxiation.
A grainy photo published on the Saturday cover of the tabloid Thai Rath shows a naked body suspended from a clothes bar in a hotel closet, hands apparently bound together above the head and feet on the floor. The face is blacked out and other areas are obscured.
The paper did not indicate the source of the image, but Thai police said they believed it was a picture of Carradine’s body taken by a forensics team.
Keith Carradine said in a statement that the family was “profoundly disturbed by the release in Thailand of photographs taken at the scene of David Carradine’s death,” and threatened legal action against further distribution.
“The family wants it understood that, per attorney Mark Geragos, any persons, publications or media outlets will be fully prosecuted for invasion of privacy and causing severe emotional distress if the photos are published,” the statement read.
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