(Daily Mail) A shotgun WAS found near the body of the Clinton White House aide who killed himself on a ranch in Arkansas, the local sheriff is now saying.
And more details of how cops now believe Mark Middleton killed himself have been released.
Papers released earlier by Perry County sheriff Scott Montgomery said deputies who were called to the Heifer Ranch in Perryville, an hour west of Little Rock, after an abandoned BMW SUV was found there specifically said there was no gun in the car.
But now a further set of papers has been released to DailyMail.com that says a weapon – a Stoeger 12-gauge coach gun – was found on the ground 30 feet from Middleton’s body.
In the new papers, Sergeant Keenan Carter gives a detailed explanation of how he believes Middleton – an aide who signed pedophile Jeffrey Epstein into the White House several times during Bill Clinton’s presidency – took great lengths to ensure his suicide bid was successful – after writing a text to his wife saying he had ‘found a perfect place for a nap in the sun.’
A shotgun WAS found near the body of the Clinton White House aide who killed himself on a ranch in Arkansas, the local sheriff is now saying
Like Clinton, Middleton also flew on Epstein’s jet, nicknamed the ‘Lolita Express’. Middleton was the authorizing figure who admitted Jeffrey Epstein to the White House on seven of the at least 17 times the late pedophile visited
Hours before Middleton’s body was found on an Arkansas ranch, he had texted his wife, Rhea, letting her know that he was ‘going to rest for a while’
He tied an electrical cord round his neck and then shot himself, so if the blast didn’t kill him the wire would when he fell.
In the note to his wife Rhea, Middleton said: ‘Going to rest for a while,’ he added: ‘You are a great Mom and wife babe.
‘Please be happy today and get some sun. It will make you feel better. I love you.’
He signed off on the text with a heart emoji.
Carter said Middleton, 59, then pulled an eight-foot-long bench over to a tree at a point on the ranch overlooking a valley.
‘He stood on top of the bench and tied one end of the extension cord to a large limb of the tree and the other end around his neck.
‘It is believed that Mr. Middleton then took the firearm and placed the barrels against his chest and then reached out with his left hand and placed his first finger on the first trigger.
‘It is then believed that Mr. Middleton pulled the trigger on the firearm casing (sic) it to discharge and strike him in the chest and then he fell from the bench causing the extension cord to become tight cutting off his breathing.’
Carter said in this report that the gun landed so far from Middleton’s body ‘due to the recoil from the discharge and the height and angle of the ground.’
A Stoeger 12-gauge coach gun was found on the ground 30 feet from Middleton’s body
‘Please be happy today and get some sun. It will make you feel better. I love you,’ Middleton had texted his wife Rhea just before his death
The married father-of-two, who lived in Little Rock, Arkansas, shot himself at the Heifer Ranch in Perryville
Perry County Sheriff Scott Montgomery said Middleton was discovered on the property hanging from a tree with a shotgun blast to his chest
Middleton’ is not known to have had any connection to the ranch where he killed himself
The autopsy report ruled that Middleton’s death was a suicide caused by ‘contact shotgun wound of chest and hanging’
Middleton’s body was discovered shortly after 1pm on May 7, 2022. But Carter believes he had killed himself more than three hours earlier as the text to his wife was timed at 9.26am.
He said the relative lack of blood on Middleton’s body indicated that he had died within seconds.
Coroner Theodore Brown noted that Middleton had a history of depression and ruled his death a suicide. He said all toxicology studies proved negative.
Ian Peters, the operations coordinator at the ranch, said he called the sheriff’s office after noticing that Middleton’s black SUV had been on site for some hours.
When the deputies discovered an empty gun case and three boxes of buckshot with two rounds missing, he and fellow worker Samantha McElroy started searching the area.
‘We began to be concerned that this person was lost or something,’ Peters, 33, said in a statement.
‘I went into a nearby trail to the south, then heard my colleague (Sam McElroy) calling for help.
‘I ran towards her, and could see the officers moving towards where she was – and she was pointing towards the overlook (approx. 150ft away) asking, “Is that a human? Is that a body?’
Middleton was a special advisor to Bill Clinton in the 1990s and signed Jeffrey Epstein into the White House
Officers at the scene said they ‘didn’t find any evidence to indicate that there was anyone else present with Mr. Middleton’ or any evidence of ‘any type of struggle and or foul play’
Middleton’s body was discovered shortly after 1pm on May 7, 2022. But Carter believes he had killed himself more than three hours earlier as the text to his wife was timed at 9.26am
