Carradine's Family Suspicious of Death

Published June 5, 2009 11:10 AM PDT

David Carradine's family believes foul play was involved in the actor's death because they've been told he was found with his hands tied behind his back.

Earlier today, Thai police added to the mystery saying, "It is unclear whether [David] committed suicide or not or [whether] he died of suffocation or heart failure." Police say he could have died from an "accidental suffocation."

David's body was discovered in his Bangkok hotel room early Thursday morning -- police said there was rope wrapped around his neck and genitals.

Initially cops suspected suicide, but Carradine's close friends and family immediately refuted the claim -- saying David would never do that to himself. But cops say there's no evidence to suggest anyone was in the room at the time of David's death.

Now, suspicions of foul play are growing even stronger among family members who claim the hotel has been incredibly slow in turning over surveillance video to cops.

We've been told by the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok that David's body was shipped back to the States Friday evening (Thailand is 14 hours ahead of PST).

Story developing...

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Gibson Divorce -- A Sticky Wicket

Mel Gibson's divorce is rolling along, but we're told it ain't gonna be as simple as a clean 50/50 split.

First of all, it looks like Mel's reported wealth -- $900,000,000 -- is inflated. The business people are still figuring it out, but a huge portion of his net worth is tied up in real estate. As one source put it, relative to his wealth, there's not a lot of cash involved.

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That's not to say Mel and Robyn are living on a budget. They have millions in the bank ... we're told Mel is pulling in about $17 million on his latest movie project.

Now here's where it gets complicated. Some of the real estate is being held in trust for their children. As for the rest of the real estate, it's not a good time to sell, but we're told they will most likely have to liquidate the lion's share of these assets for their property settlement.