Colorado authorities on Friday said they had found no evidence to suggest that the writer Hunter S. Thompson died of anything other than suicide, following a monthslong review of the 2005 death of the gonzo journalist.
In September the sheriff of Pitkin County in Colorado, Michael Buglione, asked the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to re-examine the death of Hunter, who was found dead in the kitchen at his compound in Woody Creek, Colo., near Aspen, on a snowy Sunday in February 2005. At the time, investigators with the sheriff’s department determined that Hunter, who was in failing health, had taken his own life with a single gunshot to his head.
And that’s where matters stood for two decades, until last year, when Hunter’s widow, Anita Thompson, approached Mr. Buglione with her suspicions about the official story of her husband’s death. Anita had speculated that her late husband’s son, Juan, and Juan’s then-wife, Jennifer Winkel, might have had something to do with his death, either by murdering him or assisting him in taking his own life.
Juan and Jennifer have long denied having any role in the death. In its statement on Friday, the C.B.I. concluded that “all speculative theories could not be substantiated.”
Last summer Anita told law enforcement officials that her doubts about her husband’s death had grown after reading the original police report. She said she had also heard from the former wife of Juan and Jennifer’s son, who claimed that she had heard Jennifer suggest a cover-up by saying they had had to make Hunter’s death “look like a suicide.”
Both Juan and Jennifer have emphatically denied any involvement in Hunter’s death. Hunter had said to people close to him that one day he would take his own life, as one of his literary heroes, Ernest Hemingway, had done.
In a statement included with the C.B.I.’s news release, Anita said, “I’m thankful for the kind and thorough work done by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation in their review of this case, and not a single attempt to overstep the ethical boundaries of a technical review, especially under such difficult circumstances. This allows all of us who loved Hunter to move forward with a clean conscience.”
In a statement Mr. Buglione, the sheriff, said, “while we have always believed the original investigation was conducted properly, we recognized the importance of an independent review for the Thompson family. CBI’s conclusions reaffirm the original findings and, we hope, provide reassurance and clarity.”
Juan and Jennifer, along with their young son, spent Hunter’s last weekend with him in February of 2005 at Owl Farm, a property in Woody Creek, Colo., on the outskirts of Aspen, where the writer had lived for decades.
After Hunter was found dead on a Sunday evening in his kitchen, Juan said he had been in a different room in the house and heard a thumping noise that had sounded like a book falling from a shelf. Anita, who had fought bitterly with her husband that weekend, said later that she was at a health club waiting for a yoga class to begin and was on speakerphone with her husband when he took his own life. She later told the news media that she had heard the “clicking of the gun.”
Juan and Jennifer did not immediately comment.
Over the last several months, state investigators interviewed people who were close to Hunter, as well as former officials with the sheriff’s department who investigated the case at the time. They also visited Owl Farm and performed a bullet trajectory analysis in the kitchen, where Hunter was found dead slumped over his typewriter, and determined that “the body was not moved or ‘staged’ after death.”
Investigators said that interviews “confirmed that Thompson suffered from significant depression and chronic pain.”
He left behind a note titled, “Football Season Is Over,” which many came to regard as a suicide note, although he had written it days or weeks before his death.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
Tim Arango is a correspondent covering national news. He is based in Los Angeles.
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