Authorities are investigating allegations that Grammy Award-winning Motown singer Dennis Edwards, who spent years as a lead singer with The Temptations, was abused before his death last week.
Family members said Edwards died Feb. 1 in Chicago, one day before his 75th birthday. His wife, Brenda Edwards, told the Chicago Tribune that her husband died from complications of meningitis.
However, Becky Schlickerman, a spokeswoman for the Cook County, Illinois, Medical Examiner's Office, said Monday that an autopsy failed to determine the cause and manner of Dennis Edwards' death, The Detroit News reported.
"It's an open and ongoing investigation at this time," Chicago police spokeswoman Laura Amezaga told the News on Tuesday.
Three weeks before Dennis Edwards' death, an investigator with the Healthcare Consortium of Illinois filed a request for an emergency protection order on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee's behalf, the Tribune reported. The agency investigates cases of elder abuse for the state, according to the News.
In the court records, the investigator said that Brenda Edwards tried to suffocate her husband by holding his head down on a pillow and that she took his hearing aids away from him. Dennis Edwards was described as "bedbound and immobile," the Tribune reported.
Brenda Edwards denied the allegations Monday night in a statement.
“I loved Dennis and we were married for 18 years,” she said. “I would have never done anything to harm him. These allegations are false and defamatory and will be proven as such. Until this is all over, I have no further comment.”
Authorities continue to investigate the case.
Dennis Edwards was survived by five daughters, a son and several grandchildren, according to the Tribune.
Credit: Jason Miller
Credit: Jason Miller
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