WaPo:

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.

“Obviously, he took his own life,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the results of an autopsy had not been announced. “This is not an accident.”

Doesn’t seem to add up. He tied an anchor around his ankles. Shot himself in the head. Tossed the shotgun overboard. And then dived off the boat?

And didn’t leave any evidence of a shooting on the boat. No blood anywhere? No cartridge (do shotguns eject cartridges?)?

There was no suicide note either, for what it’s worth.

The WaPo article ends by mentioning two deaths by water of former CIA employees–ex-director William E. Colby and “former high-level CIA employee, John A. Paisley“.

Would that, by any chance, be a subtle insinuation that Merrill may have had a secret CIA connection, and his death may be related to that?