SALT LAKE CITY—A Utah physician indicted in a federal investigation into the theft of ancient artifacts in the Four Corners region has been found dead in an apparent suicide, a sheriff’s official said Friday.
San Juan County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Grayson Redd, a distant relative, said James Redd’s body was found Thursday afternoon by his local church leader near a dried-up pond on his property in Blanding.
Phil Mueller, a family member, said Redd died from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning in his Jeep.
“It’s a tragic loss for the community,” Mueller told The Associated Press. “He was everybody’s general practitioner and birthed most of the babies in Blanding.”
Police did not verify a cause of death, but the sheriff’s chief deputy said the death has been ruled a suicide.
James Redd, 60, was one of 24 people indicted after a two-year investigation. The indictments were announced by federal officials on Wednesday. Court papers say those involved stole, received or tried to sell American Indian artifacts, including bowls, stone pipes, arrowheads, pendants and necklaces.
Redd was charged with one felony count of theft of Indian tribal property. His wife, 59-year-old Jeanne Redd, was also charged. Calls for comment at a phone listing for a James Redd in Blanding were not answered Friday.
Of those indicted, 19 are from southern Utah, four are from Colorado, and one is from New Mexico. They range in age from 27 to 78.
BLM and FBI agents assigned to the investigation used a confidential source who came forward in 2006 and paid more than $335,000 during the following two years for 256 stolen artifacts, according to court documents.
In the wake of this week’s indictments, authorities have searched additional locations, looking for more artifacts.
In Grand Junction, Colo., federal authorities, including FBI agents, spent more than 10 hours Thursday searching a home for artifacts, said Erin Curtis, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Land Management in Grand Junction.
Items were taken from the home, Curtis said, but she would not elaborate on what agents found.
Curtis said the owner of the home, who was not among the two dozen indicted Wednesday, has not been charged with a crime.
In New Mexico, investigators searched four Santa Fe addresses. Among the items seized were a buffalo skull, a feathered talisman, computers, photographs, videotape and business documents.
Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Utah, said Friday she couldn’t discuss whether any additional searches were launched because of the ongoing investigation.
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Associated Press Writers Tim Korte in Albuquerque and Kristen Wyatt in Denver contributed to this report.
