Figure In Cochran Photo Scandal Found Dead

Mark Mayfield

RIDGELAND, Miss. (AP) – Police in Mississippi say a tea party official 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.

Ridgeland Police Chief Jimmy Houston says the body of attorney Mark Mayfield was found Friday morning at his home in a gated community outside Jackson.

Houston says 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 Republican primary.