Death of ex-Wildcat golfer Blasberg raises questions

The probe into the death of former Wildcat golfer Erica Blasberg seems to raising more questions than it's answering.

Her father, Mel Blasberg, at first suggested she might have committed suicide, but seemed to back off those comments a day later.

"At first glance it looks like she might have taken her own life, but at second glance, something is very, very strange about it," he said to the Riverside Press Enterprise on Monday by phone from Nevada. "We're waiting for the police to make an investigation, it's a pending investigation."

But on Tuesday he told ABC News he's not sure how she died.

"We don't know what happened. It's just difficult for us. There are questions that have to be answered and I trust that we'll get answers."

Police have not ruled suicide out. Determining the cause of death for Blasberg, who was found in her apartment outside Las Vegas on Sunday afternoon after a 911 call, could take at least a month, officials said.

What's so baffling, Mel Blasberg said, is that his daughter seemed optimistic about her future in golf.

He said Erica couldn't have been "more up, more positive" and was "motivated" to get to a tournament in Alabama.

She also seemed to find inspiration while addressing a group of students at Universidad Latina de America a couple of weeks ago, reports Fox News.

"It's exciting. It's fun to see a young person play because they just, they have so much more excitement in the way they play. They take chances and they challenge things," Blasberg told the students.

But Irene Cho, Blasberg's best friend on the LPGA Tour, was worried when Blasberg didn't show up for dinner Sunday night.

The New York Times reports:

They had confirmed plans in a phone conversation last week, but Blasberg never made it. She was found dead on Sunday afternoon after the police responded to a 911 call from Blasberg’s suburban Las Vegas home.

“I think everybody is kind of shocked,” Cho said.

Cho’s caddie, Missy Pederson, was supposed to carry Blasberg’s bag on Monday. She said she retrieved a text message from Blasberg on Sunday morning saying that she was not coming.

The text was sent in the middle of the night, which worried Pederson, who sent Blasberg a text message saying she hoped everything was O.K. Pederson never received a reply.

Henderson, Nev., police have not released much information on their investigation or the results of a toxicology screening.

Blasberg was a 2-time all-American for the Wildcats in 2003 and 2004, winning six times over her two seasons at Arizona. She was the 2003 Pac-10 Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year and won the Golfstat Cup after recording the lowest average scoring total for the 2003 season.

Blasberg turned professional in June 2004 and qualified for the LPGA Tour the following year. The southern California native won a career-high $113,428 in 2008 and finished in a tie for eighth in the SBS Open in Hawaii that year. She only made one appearance on the tour this year, two weeks ago in Mexico.