The night before she was due in Alabama for qualifying at an LPGA tournament, golfer Erica Blasberg texted a caddy to tell her she wasn’t coming after all. Hours later, the 25-year-old pro golfer was found dead.
Blasberg was found dead in her Henderson, Nev., home Monday. Police told reporters they found her body after an afternoon 911 call, but have declined to say who made it. They said Wednesday that they have not ruled out suicide as the cause.
On Tuesday, Blasberg’s father and coach, Mel Blasberg, told his local newspaper that he had suspicions.
“At first glance, it looks like she might have taken her own life, but at second glance, something is very, very strange about it,” Mel Blasberg told The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif. “We’re waiting for the police to make an investigation.
A day later, Blasberg backed away from those statements. He told TMZ his daughter was “very upbeat” in the days before her death. He said she’d packed her clubs in her car in preparation for the drive to a tournament in Alabama. After she failed to turn up for qualifying on Monday, the alarm was sounded.
An aunt suggested to the New York Daily News that the Blasberg family started to worry when she didn’t phone home on Mother’s Day.
According to Mel Blasberg, a friend found Erica dead in her bed on Sunday afternoon.
Blasberg’s best friend on the tour, Irene Cho, told The New York Times that she had offered her friend the use of her caddy, Missy Pederson, on Monday.
Pederson reportedly received a text in the early hours of Sunday from Blasberg saying she wouldn’t make the tournament. The late-night cancellation worried Cho, who text-messaged Blasberg back. She didn’t receive a response.
A few hours later, police found Blasberg.
According to the Associated Press, the Clark County coroner’s investigation into Blasberg’s death, including toxicology testing, will take four to six weeks to complete. The Henderson police continue to investigate.
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