http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/31/SPG8LN9P8G1.DTLA life marked by unfulfilled promise on the baseball field and three dangerous tours as a truck driver in Iraq ended in mystery this week when Chris Brown, a former San Francisco Giant whose major league career was cut short by injuries, died from burns suffered nearly a month ago in a house fire.
Brown, 45, died early Tuesday at Memorial Hermann Hospital. Though gravely ill during a 25-day stay in the intensive care unit, Brown communicated to relatives that he had been detained by robbers in Houston, brought to his home in nearby suburban Sugar Land, tied up and abandoned while robbers set his home ablaze.
But authorities in Sugar Land said they were investigating the circumstances that resulted in Brown's death as an arson case, not a kidnapping or attempted murder.
They refused to discuss whether Brown was the primary suspect in the arson investigation, but made clear that the version of events they culled together from interviewing neighbors and firefighters at the scene was different from the one Brown shared with family members.
"It's just crazy; it doesn't make any sense," said Darryl Strawberry, an eight-time big-league All-Star who played with Brown at Los Angeles' Crenshaw High. "Nobody really knows what happened. It doesn't sound right. He was not a violent person. He didn't have a history of trouble."