imagine there's a three-episode Law & Order story on this one.

They found his body in a room locked from the inside with the 9mm pistol and a hole in his head. When they finally broke open his office desk, they found the bock that the gun had come in and a suicide note telling them where to find his body. According to the media, who would only release the 'appropriate' portions, he said he was devastated that he let the embezzlement go on so long without him becoming aware of it until it was discovered by the authorities.
Most speculation is that he was in a relationship with her, and either he permitted the embezzlement or, once it was found out, she threatened to expose him. He's a damn coward to do that to his family - for one thing, they don't get a dime of life insurance. If he couldn't live with the shame he could have had the decency to drink a quart of whiskey and plow into a bridge abutment at 100 miles an hour.

but the one I keep coming back to is the desk drawer. Suppose it was you in that office. The man has just gone missing. You don't need a warrant to search his desk. One of the drawers is locked. What possible reason could you have for ignoring that drawer, calling off the search, and saying, "It's Miller time"? It doesn't make sense.

Either the note and the box weren't there on Feb. 11, the day Sponseller was reported missing, or the police were told not to search his desk, or they found those items and were told to sit on them.

I will admit it's possible that someone higher up wanted to handle the case carefully, considering Sponseller's position. Maybe that someone just assumed that Sponseller had run off with Duncan and the money, so the desk was left untouched. Maybe that's why two senior police personnel were fired. If it were that simple, though, why did we get such a vague reason for those firings?

One question I haven't heard anyone ask is, how did Sponseller get the key(s) to that maintenance room?

For anyone following this story, Duncan pleaded guilty the other day. We learned that the $480,000 she embezzled went to offshore gambling, which means it won't be recovered.

We also learned that Sponseller had some pictures of her on his office computer, mainly evidence of spousal abuse, but there were some nude pictures of an unspecified nature. There's no evidence of an affair, and I have the feeling that those nude pictures were an unsuccessful attempt by Duncan to seduce Sponseller.

More bulletins if and as events warrant.