Charleston, South Carolina investigators have released their findings in the death of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, who was found dead in his truck in March after he failed to show up for his second day of depositions in a lawsuit against the aerospace manufacturer.
After Barnett failed to arrive for the proceedings, his lawyers called for a wellness check, and he was found with a gunshot wound to the head in the parking lot of his hotel, according to authorities.
He had a pistol in his right hand, and investigators later confirmed gunshot residue on his hand. They found a single shell casing in the truck and a suicide note on his passenger seat.
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“All findings were consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” the report from Charleston County Coroner Bobbi Jo O’Neal reads.
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His official cause of death is the gunshot wound. The manner “is best deemed, ‘Suicide.’” the coroner concluded.
Additionally, police said he was locked inside his vehicle alone when they found him, along with the key fob. They found no signs of unusual travel patterns or communications in his phone records, and hotel surveillance video showed him leaving the hotel by himself before he reversed into a parking spot a few minutes later.
No one came or went from the vehicle until the grim discovery the following morning.
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Police said records showed Barnett bought the handgun legal in 2000, and they found his fingerprints on the notebook containing his suicide letter.
He was suing Boeing, claiming that he had been retaliated against, harassed and spied on by the company.
Signage outside the Boeing Co. manufacturing facility in Renton, Washington, US, on Monday, Feb. 5, 2024. Boeing Co. found more mistakes with holes drilled in the fuselage of its 737 Max jet, a setback that could further slow deliveries on a critical program already restricted by regulators over quality lapses. (David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
One of Barnett’s lawyers, Robert Turkewitz, previously told Fox News that he didn’t think the aerospace giant had played a role in his client’s death – however, he added that “it just didn’t make sense” that he would kill himself.
His legal team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the coroner’s findings.
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Barnett worked for Boeing for over three decades before retiring in 2017 as a quality-control engineer. In 2019, he told the BBC that Boeing would rush to get its 787 Dreamliner jets off the production line, compromising safety.
Boeing 787 Dreamliners are built at the aviation company’s North Charleston, South Carolina, assembly plant on May 30, 2023. The plant is located on the grounds of the joint-use Charleston Air Force Base and Charleston International Airport. (JULIETTE MICHEL/AFP via Getty Images)
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This past January, Barnett told TMZ that he was concerned that Boeing was returning its 737 Max 9 jets to the sky too quickly, after the incident in which an Alaska Airlines jet’s door panel blew off mid-flight.
Unrelated to Barnett’s lawsuit, Boeing’s CEO Dave Calhoun announced he would be resigning by the end of the year amid the company’s ongoing struggles.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
