Police: Cocaine Was Found at Beck's Home

[Billy Barooooooo]

PHOENIX - Police found evidence of cocaine and drug paraphernalia at former major league pitcher Rod Beck's home on the day he died. A police report released Tuesday indicated evidence in several places at Beck's house, including the bathroom and the master bedroom in which the 38-year-old Beck, a three-time All-Star who saved 286 games, was found dead at his northeast Phoenix home on June 23.

In a case on the bedroom floor, "four small canisters contained a white powdery residue of suspected cocaine. The larger canister contained a dried paste, commonly used to produce rock cocaine," the report said. They also found a white powdery substance on the roll top desk.

Police also found a loaded semiautomatic handgun in a bag containing numerous glass bowl pipes and torch lighters.

The medical examiner is awaiting results of toxicology tests to establish a cause of death.

Beck's wife Stacey released a statement about her husband's death. In it, she discussed her husband's addiction to drugs, and said she hoped her family's honesty about the situation would help others dealing with the same problem.

"While we were all deeply saddened by the death of Rodney, he suffered from a debilitating, degenerative brain disease called addiction," she said. "The last three years we have seen this disease progress and destroy the person we knew.

"Unfortunately the details of his death are not pretty or palatable, but those details are merely symptoms of this devastating brain disease. ... Rodney overcame other illnesses and injuries but sadly this brain disease got the best of him."

The police report said Beck called his personal assistant, Tina Buchanan, at 11:57 a.m. on June 23 and asked her to come to his home because he was not feeling well. When Buchanan arrived, she found Beck lying on the master bedroom floor "not breathing and unresponsive," the report said.

Buchanan later told officers "Beck used cocaine on a daily basis, but she did not know the quantity he was using," the report said. "Beck has had seizures in the past and has recently suffered from hallucinations. The hallucinations were possibly caused by his cocaine use."