Former Ohio State offensive lineman Zach Slagle was found dead inside his Canton, Ohio, home of a gunshot wound at 1:20 a.m. on Thursday morning. Police have ruled the 31-year-old’s death a suicide.
Slagle, a walk-on for the Buckeyes from 2006-08, posted an apparent suicide note on Facebook around 1 a.m. Thursday, causing both family and first responders to rush to his home, but he was already dead by the time help arrived, according to the Canton Repository. A “lengthy” handwritten message was also found inside Slagle’s home, according to Stark County Coroner investigator Harry Campbell.
Slagle’s brain will be donated to the world-renowned CTE Center at Boston University for research. The Center contains more than 600 brains, making it the largest brain bank in the world; 325 of those brains have confirmed cases of CTE, which can only be diagnosed posthumously. The phrase #checkforCTE was included in Slagle’s suicide note on Facebook.
Zach was selfless as a teammate and friend and endeared himself to anyone who knew him. He was always the guy that everyone liked to see and be around. Zach was a fun loving person with a heart of gold,” Slagle’s former teammate Jake Ballard wrote on a GoFundMe page raising money to cover the cost of funeral expenses for the family.
