{"id":75898,"date":"2017-11-22T12:58:05","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T19:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-investigated-for-vulgar-letter-is-found-dead-from-self-inflicted-wound\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T17:23:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T17:23:34","slug":"man-investigated-for-vulgar-letter-is-found-dead-from-self-inflicted-wound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-investigated-for-vulgar-letter-is-found-dead-from-self-inflicted-wound\/","title":{"rendered":"Man investigated for vulgar letter is found dead from self-inflicted wound"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"
du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A 62-year-old Durango man who was under investigation for leaving a vulgar letter on the windshield of a car parked at the Durango Community Recreation Center was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Durango Police announced it was investigating who may have left the profane and at times vividly racist note, which included pointed political and personal attacks.<\/p>\n

The note was found Nov. 10 on the windshield of Michael Berry\u2019s car about 2 p.m., after he and his wife spent about an hour in the rec center. Disturbed by the contents of the note, Berry contacted police.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever this suspect was made it personal,\u201d Durango Police Cmdr. Ray Shupe said at the time. \u201cThey weren\u2019t just attacking an ideology. They were making personal attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durango Police were able to obtain tape from a video surveillance camera that is set up outside the rec center, which captured video of a man later identified as Thomas Petit leaving the note on Berry\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

Durango Police Cmdr. Jacob Dunlop said Wednesday that officers contacted Petit on Tuesday afternoon by phone. Dunlop said Petit admitted to leaving the note on Berry\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

Petit then agreed to go to the Durango Police station on Wednesday morning to discuss the incident.<\/p>\n

Dunlop said the officer who spoke with Petit on Tuesday said he displayed no indication of grief. Instead, Dunlop said Petit was \u201ccordial\u201d and \u201ccooperative.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, hours later, Petit was found unresponsive at his home in the Dalton Ranch subdivision.<\/p>\n

According to La Plata County Coroner Jann Smith, authorities received a call from Petit\u2019s wife around 4:45 p.m. Tuesday that Petit was unresponsive.<\/p>\n

Petit was pronounced dead about 7 p.m., Smith said. An autopsy will be performed Monday.<\/p>\n

The La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office is investigating the case, according to a prepared statement.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Suicide resources<\/h4>\n

Help for people having suicidal thoughts or for those who fear a person is considering killing himself can be found from these sources:
\n Axis Health System: 24-hour hotline at 247-5245.
\n National Suicide Prevention Hotline: (800) 273-TALK (8255) or text \u201cTALK\u201d to 741741.
\n RED Nacional de Prevenci\u00f3N Del Suicidio: (888) 628-9454.
\n National Crisis text Hotline: 741741
\n Fort Lewis College Counseling Center: 247-7212.
\n Boys Town Hotline: (800) 448-3000.
\n Safe2Tell Colorado: (877) 542-7233 or online at
\n https:\/\/safe2tell.org<\/a>
\n .
\n Colorado Crisis Support Line: (844) 493-8255 or text \u201cTALK\u201d to 38255 or online at
\n http:\/\/www.coloradocrisisservices.org\/<\/a>
\n to access a live chat available in 17 languages. The line has mental-health professionals available to talk to adults or youths about any crisis, 24 hours a day.
\n Trevor Project: (866) 488-7386. Crisis intervention and suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth via online chat, text or phone.
\n Southern Ute Community ACtion Program: Visit
\n www.sucap.org<\/a>
\n and click on Suicide Prevention for a list of trained gatekeepers.
\n Second Wind Fund: (720) 962-0706. This is not a crisis hotline, but the fund is available to youths who face social or financial barriers to crisis counseling. The organization requires a referral by a school counselor or mental-health professional.
\n Survivors Support GrouP: Heartbeat of Durango meets from 6 to 8 p.m. the second Wednesday of every month at the La Plata County Fairgrounds, 2500 Main Ave. Contact Janna for information at (970) 749-1673.
\n American Foundation for Suicide Prevention: Colorado chapter information available at
\n https:\/\/afsp.org\/chapter\/afsp-colorado\/<\/a>
\n For Men: A website for adult men contemplating suicide, who often are unwilling to seek help, is available at
\n www.mantherapy.org<\/a>
\n .<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Durango Police say man admitted to leaving note, found dead hours later<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,955],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-75898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-suicide"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75948,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75898\/revisions\/75948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75898"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=75898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}