Police detectives in Memphis searched the home and backyard of ex-NBA player Lorenzen Wright's ex-wife on Sunday, WPTY-TV in Memphis reported.
Lorenzen Wright's body was found Wednesday in the woods in southeast Memphis. He had been missing since July 18, when he left his ex-wife's house around midnight with an unidentified person. Police have ruled his death a homicide.
Detectives spent several hours at the home of Sherra Wright, including a lengthy search of a backyard grill and fire pit, according to the report. Her neighbors told police they had seen smoke coming from the backyard the night Lorenzen Wright went missing and thought it strange because it was one of the hottest nights of the summer.
Last week, Sherra Wright's lawyer, Gail Mathes, said three armed men looking for Lorenzen Wright showed up to the ex-wife's house about six weeks before he was found shot to death. The men, dressed in sport coats with weapons in view, threatened Sherra Wright and her family if she told anyone about the visit, Mathes said.
The 6-foot-11 Wright, who starred at the University of Memphis, played 13 seasons in the NBA for the Los Angeles Clippers, Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings and Cleveland Cavaliers.
Wright's mother is criticizing the way police in suburban Germantown handled the 911 call that came in from Wright's phone the night he died, The Commercial Appeal reported. The newspaper, which first reported the call, said a garbled male voice on the call can be heard using an expletive, and then as many as a dozen gunshots are heard in succession.
Rodney Bright, Germantown's deputy police chief, said department officials did not know about the call until Tuesday, eight days after it was received by a dispatcher in the early morning hours of July 19.
"They did drop the ball," said Wright's mother, Deborah Marion, according to the report. "How do you call 911 and hear shots and nobody reacts?"
Marion said that once, when her grandchildren were playing with the phone and called 911, three police officers showed up at the door to investigate.
"How do three police show up for a 911 hang-up, but nobody does anything when you have a 911 and shots? Somebody's got to answer for this. I want somebody prosecuted because this is not right," she said, according to the report.
Wright leaves behind six children, his mother and his father, Herb Wright, who coached his son from a wheelchair after he was shot in the spine. Lorenzen Wright's 11-month-old daughter, Sierra, died in March 2003 of sudden infant death syndrome.
Wright's family and the NBA's Grizzlies are hosting a memorial service for Wright, a Memphis native, on Wednesday at FedEx Forum.
