The license plate was gone, but other clues linked an abandoned luxury car to Michael Jordan six days before a sheriff announced it belonged to the basketball star's murdered father.
The car contained a handwritten card from children thanking Michael Jordan for a charity event, said Richard Crumpler, who towed the car to his auto repair company in Steadman on Aug. 6. It also contained business cards, including one for the Chicago-area Lexus dealer who sold the car to the NBA star, Crumpler said.But Cumberland County authorities said it was Aug. 11 before they confirmed the car belonged to James Jordan, father of the Chicago Bulls star. The discovery was announced Aug. 12, and the next day South Carolina officials said a body dumped in their state was that of the elder Jordan, who had been shot in the chest.
Dental records were used to make that determination. Coroner Tim Brown, having no way to store the decomposing "John Doe" found in his state Aug. 3, had cremated the body Aug. 6.
Would the discovery of a car identified as James Jordan's on Aug. 5 have changed the South Carolina coroner's decision to cremate the body? Brown did not return a call posing that question.
Crumpler first saw the car the same day the body was cremated. He was with state Trooper Raymond Battle.
"I don't know who originally found the car. Trooper Battle came to us and said he thought Michael Jordan's car was up in the woods," Crumpler said.
The trooper had been told of the abandoned car the day before, Aug. 5, when he was flagged down by someone who found it, said Battle's supervisor, Sgt. Ralph Price.
Battle's official role ended when he called the Cumberland County Sheriff's Department, which had jurisdiction, Price said.