Brother of missing former NBA player found but remains in coma

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A man sought in the disappearance of his former NBA player brother Bison Dele -- last seen on a South Pacific sailing trip in July -- lay in critical condition Friday after being found in a coma.

Police want to question Miles Dabord, 35, about Dele and two other people Tahitian authorities suspect were killed on board their 55-foot catamaran.

Dabord was identified by the FBI on Thursday, five days after he was found comatose in Tijuana, Mexico, and taken to a California hospital. The FBI arrested him on suspicion of impersonating his brother while trying to buy $152,000 in gold.

"It's premature to call him a murder suspect because we haven't declared it a murder," said Andy Black, an FBI spokesman. "We're treating the boat in Tahiti as a crime scene and we haven't heard from any of those people in months."

FBI agent Josephina Regula said Dabord had no apparent external injuries when he was found on a beach next to the U.S. border fence. Regula said she had no information on the cause of the coma, and a hospital spokeswoman said his injuries were still being assessed.

Dele, 33, changed his name from Brian Williams during an NBA career in which he played for several teams, including one of the Chicago Bulls' world championship squads and the Detroit Pistons. The free-spirited center walked away from a $35 million contract with the Pistons in 1999, at age 30.

Investigators believe Dele, his girlfriend Serena Karlan and Bertrand Saldo, a French skipper sailing with the group, were killed July 6 or 7, after a layover in Tahiti, said Michel Marotte, chief prosecutor of Tahiti.

Dabord was traveling with the group before the disappearances.

Marotte said investigators found what appear to be bloodstains on the boat. But he said investigators do not expect to find bodies in the deep, shark-infested ocean.