Tea party official charged in photos of US senator’s wife found dead; police suspect suicide
RIDGELAND, Miss. – Police in Mississippi say an official in the conservative tea party movement arrested after photos were taken of U.S. Sen Thad Cochran’s ill wife has been found dead. They are treating the case as a suicide.
Police say the body of attorney Mark Mayfield was found Friday morning at his home in a gated community outside Jackson.
Authorities say Mayfield had been shot, and a suicide note was found.
Mayfield and three other men were arrested last month and face various charges of conspiring to photograph Rose Cochran in the nursing home where she has lived since 2001 with dementia.
The photos were later used briefly in an anti-Cochran political video posted briefly online during the hard-fought Republican primary, which the long-time senator won over a tea party-backed challenger.
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