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Investigators end ocean search after Dele's disappearance

By ANGELA DOLAND
Associated Press Writer

PAPEETE, Tahiti (AP) Investigators gave up searching at sea for the bodies of former NBA basketball player Bison Dele and two companions, saying they were likely tossed off Dele's catamaran into the South Pacific.

The ocean floor is nearly 10,000 feet deep in the area where they disappeared, prosecutor Michel Marotte said Tuesday, and investigators suspect the bodies could have been weighted down before being thrown overboard. The waters are rife with sharks and other carnivorous fish.

Continuing the search at this point would be futile, Marotte said.

``If by some chance, a few bones or fragments wash up, we'll know what it is,'' he said. ``Now, it's purely up to chance.''

Dele, his girlfriend Serena Karlan and skipper Bertrand Saldo vanished July 7 while sailing near the tiny island of Maiao, west of Tahiti. Dele, who used to be known as Brian Williams, had planned to sail from New Zealand to Hawaii aboard his luxury catamaran, the ``Hakuna Matata'' Swahili for ``no worries.''

Investigators in French Polynesia believe the three died during an onboard struggle, and that Dele's brother and sailing companion, Miles Dabord, was involved. They are now interviewing witnesses and combing the boat, which is still docked in the Tahiti port where Dabord left it in mid-July.

Authorities said they had little hope of ever hearing Dabord's version of events.

Dabord remains in a coma on life support in a California hospital, but his mother, Patricia Phillips, told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday she intended to have the apparatus removed soon.

She said a joint memorial service was being planned for her sons, Dele and Dabord, but did not give the date of the service or when Dabord would be unhooked from the respirator.

``I don't want a media circus around us on the day my son's life ends,'' she was quoted as saying.

Phillips told newspapers that Dabord slipped into a coma after overdosing on insulin and failing to take his asthma medicine. He has not been charged in the United States in connection with the disappearances.

After returning home, Dabord, who used to be called Kevin Williams, aroused suspicion when he signed his brother's name to try to buy $152,000 worth of gold in Phoenix.

He was found in a coma in Tijuana, Mexico, on Sept. 14 and was later arrested on suspicion of impersonating his younger brother, who played for several NBA teams, including the Chicago Bulls' 1996-97 championship team. During his basketball career, Dele changed his name to honor his mother's American Indian ancestry.

With a recovery by Dabord unlikely, secondhand accounts have become key. Dabord's ex-girlfriend Erica Weise joined him on Moorea after the disappearances. After returning home, she informed American authorities that Dabord told her of an onboard struggle that left his companions dead.

Weise was quoted as telling Les Nouvelles de Tahiti newspaper that Dele's girlfriend was killed when she tried to intervene during a fight between the two brothers. She died after falling and hitting her head, Weise was quoted as saying.

She reportedly said Dabord told her that Dele killed the skipper because he wanted to radio authorities about the death onboard. The brothers' fighting then escalated, and Dabord shot the former basketball player to defend himself, she was quoted as saying. Authorities in French Polynesia have not confirmed the account.

The FBI was able to locate the boat's position at the time of the disappearances by studying how onboard phone calls interacted with a satellite. Les Nouvelles de Tahiti reported that investigators hoped to get an account from a person Dabord telephoned immediately after the disappearances.

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