Georgia News
Georgia News

Death of Widespread Panic equipment manager ruled suicide

By Kristi E Swartz
April 20, 2011

Widespread Panic’s longtime equipment manager’s death has been ruled a suicide, not homicide as a medical examiner initially thought, the Athens Banner-Herald is reporting.

Donald Garrie Vereen, 49, died from a knife wound to his chest. He was found inside his Athens home.

Chief State Medical Examiner Kris Sperry originally ruled the death a homicide – but called police Monday morning to say that the Feb. 16 death was a suicide, Athens-Clarke police Capt. Holeman told the Banner-Herald.

Athens-Clarke police uncovered additional evidence that made Sperry reconsider his preliminary finding, the Banner-Herald said.

Vereen was equipment manager for the popular Southern jam band for two decades.

About the Author

Kristi E Swartz
More Stories

Keep Reading

Barbed wire lines a recreation area at the Stewart Detention Center, Friday, Nov. 15, 2019, in Lumpkin, Ga. The Stewart Detention Center sits in Lumpkin, a rural town about 140 miles southwest of Atlanta and right next to the Georgia-Alabama state line. The city's 1,172 residents are outnumbered by the roughly 1,650 male detainees that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said were being held in the detention center in late November. (David Goldman/AP)

Credit: David Goldman/AP

Georgia judges deal blow to ICE’s new mandatory detention policy

The ruling is a first-of-its-kind to come out of Georgia’s Middle District.

Judge strikes down Savannah’s controversial ‘lock up your gun’ law

A Savannah-area judge ruled a controversial gun storage law unconstitutional Wednesday and dismissed a case against a man charged with leaving a gun in his truck.

A songbird gets too close for comfort to some birders

Eastern phoebes have a reputation for having little fear of humans, but sometimes that can be a problem.

The Latest

Barbed wire lines a recreation area at the Stewart Detention Center, Friday, Nov. 15, 2019, in Lumpkin, Ga. The Stewart Detention Center sits in Lumpkin, a rural town about 140 miles southwest of Atlanta and right next to the Georgia-Alabama state line. The city's 1,172 residents are outnumbered by the roughly 1,650 male detainees that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said were being held in the detention center in late November. (David Goldman/AP)

Credit: David Goldman/AP

Georgia judges deal blow to ICE’s new mandatory detention policy

Judge strikes down Savannah’s controversial ‘lock up your gun’ law

A songbird gets too close for comfort to some birders

Featured

University of Georgia students are seen entering and leaving the main Library on the Athens campus on Monday, Sept. 8, 2025. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

UGA to pay $100K H-1B visa fee only ‘in exceptional circumstances’

The University of Georgia could soon limit the number of foreign workers it employs, a result of the $100,000 fee imposed on some H-1B visas.

Georgia judges deal blow to ICE’s new mandatory detention policy

The ruling is a first-of-its-kind to come out of Georgia’s Middle District.

At the Cobb jail, a new kind of rehabilitation starts at the horse barn

Joshua Arp is one of two Cobb County jail detainees taking part of the sheriff’s office new equine therapy program meant to help him stay out of jail.