Free Republic

Philip Merrill, the prominent publisher and former diplomat whose body was found floating in the Chesapeake Bay on Monday, suffered from a heart condition and apparently took his own life, his family said last night. Merrill, 72, was found with a shotgun wound to the head and a small anchor tied around one or both ankles, according to a source familiar with the investigation. ~~~~snip~~~~ In 1996, former CIA director William E. Colby died from drowning and exposure after falling from a canoe off Charles County. ~~~~snip~~~~~ In 1978, another former high-level CIA employee, John A. Paisley, disappeared while sailing...

Rescue crews searched the Chesapeake Bay for a prominent publisher and diplomat after his sailboat was discovered empty in the water, the executive editor of The (Annapolis) Capital said Sunday. Philip Merrill's boat was found around 7 p.m. Saturday, authorities said. Merrill was still missing early Sunday, said Tom Marquardt of The Capital, which is part of Merrill's publishing company. The 72-year-old publisher had been sailing alone on a breezy day, Marquardt said in a telephone interview. He said he did not know what happened to him. "I'd have to speculate," Marquardt said. "There's just too many things that can...