Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 15, 1993 TAG: 9312150301
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HOUSTON LENGTH: Long
Houston Oilers defensive tackle Jeff Alm apparently was so upset by his best friend's death in a car crash that he took a shotgun out of the vehicle, stuck it in his mouth and pulled the trigger, authorities say.
Alm and Sean P. Lynch, both 25 and from Orland Park, Ill., were found dead about 2:45 a.m. Tuesday along Interstate 610 in southwest Houston, police said.
Lynch was thrown through the passenger window of Alm's 1993 Cadillac Eldorado when it went out of control at a high speed and struck barriers on either side of an elevated exit ramp, police spokesman Rick Hartley said.
Police found Alm's body sitting against a guardrail near his car and near a shotgun. Lynch's corpse could be seen from that spot, down a grassy embankment on a service road some 25 feet below.
"He got a shotgun. He may have fired a couple shots in the air and then put the gun to his head," Hartley said.
Police said there was no evidence at the scene that the two had been drinking. Toxicology reports would take several days, said Cecil Wingo, chief investigator with the Harris County medical examiner's office.
Police spokesman Alvin Wright said Alm was not injured in the wreck, but neither man was wearing a seat belt. Lynch's exact cause of death was not immediately determined.
Alm and Lynch were best friends who played football together at Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park, Ill., and Lynch often traveled to Houston to visit, friends and team officials said.
"They were very, very close, but I think their relationship even got tighter as the years went on," said Larry Lokanc, who knew both men and coached them at Sandburg. "Sean followed Jeff's career at Notre Dame, went to most of his home games. It was not uncommon for Sean to fly out to Houston to see Jeff and see him play. They were, as you'd probably say, best friends."
The coach added: "Sean died, and I don't know what Jeff read into it, if he felt he couldn't exist without him. Those are things I can't answer."
Alm, the Oilers' second-round draft pick in 1990, had played in only two games this year because of a contract dispute and a broken right leg suffered last month against Cincinnati.
His leg had healed and he was expected to rejoin team practices this week, Oilers spokesman Chip Namias said.
"We're all very shocked," Namias said. "Jeff was a great guy."
Teammates expressed shock about Alm's death. Several observers said he had few close friends among the Oilers and usually kept to himself. Some teammates described him as a "live wire," and others called him "quick to react."
"He was an emotional guy," running back Spencer Tillman said. "Anyone who knew Jeff knew he was a live wire, easily fueled. Last year we had a couple of run-ins that were the product of two personalities clashing."
Houston television station KPRC cited unidentified players as saying Alm and some teammates had argued about his right to carry a concealed weapon. Some of his teammates said they worried he might get into trouble.
The report also said he pulled a gun on another motorist last month, but Wright said he knew of no such incident.
"Jeff was an emotional guy with highs and lows. He evidently thought he did something wrong and tried and convicted himself," Houston coach Jack Pardee said.
Added Buddy Ryan, the Oilers defensive coordinator, "That's the bad thing about having a gun handy sometimes because all at once you make a decision you wouldn't have made probably if you thought about it a little longer."
Alm, 6 feet 6 and 272 pounds, played in 14 games for the Oilers last season and had 35 tackles, a sack and two forced fumbles.
He started all 12 games at right tackle as a junior on Notre Dame's 1988 national championship team. He had 50 tackles and three interceptions that year. During his senior year, Alm was voted to the All-America second team with 74 tackles, a sack and an interception.
Neither Alm nor Lynch was married or had children. Parents for both were on their way to Houston and funeral arrangements had not been made, Lokanc said. \ AUTO-RELATED DEATHS\ SPORTS FIGURES WHO HAVE DIED IN 1993\ \ Jan. 9: Denison University football player Jason Cooperider, 21, who set an NCAA Division III freshman record for total offense in 1989, died after being injured two days earlier in an auto accident.\ \ Jan. 19: Chris Street, 20, a junior basketball forward with Iowa, died when his car was struck by a snow plow, then by another car.\ \ Feb. 11: Russian gymnast Oksana Kostina, a world and European champion in rhythmic gymnastics, died in a Moscow car crash that also seriously injured Eduard Zenovka, a bronze medal winner for the Unified Team at the Barcelona Olympics in the modern pentathlon.\ \ March 7: Jackson "J.B." Kulik, one of Pennsylvania's top high school quarterbacks before legal problems forced him to go to Texas, died in a car crash at age 21.\ \ March 10: Bruno Torok, 19, a sophomore tennis player at Winthrop University, was killed when a team van ran off Interstate 59 and slammed into a machine at a construction site.\ \ May 8: Kevin Roberson, 22, Vermont basketball center who was the 1992 North Atlantic Conference player of the year, was killed in a head-on car crash in Buffalo, N.Y.\ \ May 22: Diego Ruiz, 22, a pitcher for the Class A Springfield Cardinals, was killed in a one-car crash near Springfield Ill.\ \ June 7: Drazen Petrovic, 28, New Jersey Nets guard was killed in an automobile accident in Germany. Petrovic was the top scorer the past two seasons with the New Jersey Nets and was a silver medalist in the 1992 Summer Olympics with Croatia.\ \ Oct. 11: Christine O'Reilly, 25, one of identical triplets who became professional tennis players, died as a result of head injuries sustained in an automobile accident in California.\ \ Nov. 4: Cleveland Indians pitcher Cliff Young, 29, died when a truck driven by Young crashed into a tree near his hometown of Willis, Texas.\ \ Dec. 12: Jayson Gwinn, 20, an Ohio State defensive end, died in a two-car collision after leaving a nightclub where a teammate was shot. Shortly before the crash, Gwinn helped teammate Marvin "Obie" Stillwell, who was shot in a parking lot outside the Faze 2 nightclub near campus.\ \ Dec. 14: Jeff Alm, 25, a defensive tackle with the Houston Oilers who was upset by his best friend's death in a car crash in which Alm was the driver, apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot.
Keywords:
FATALITY YEAR 1993
by CNB