Peter Lopez, husband of The Dukes of Hazzard’s Catherine Bach was found dead in the backyard of his Los Angeles home earlier today.
From TMZ:
Paramedics responded to a report of a shooting at Lopez’s home in Encino at around 11:30 AM. Cops tell TMZ his death is being investigated as an apparent suicide.
Radar Online spoke to officers on the scene who said:
“At 11.30 this morning officers received a call,” Officer Cleon Joseph said. “We came here and to the backyard of the house and found Peter Lopez, 60-years-old, apparently deceased from self-inflicted wounds.”
Officer Joseph went on to say that the coroner is conducting an investigation but that no foul play is suspected.
Another source tells the site that there is supposedly a suicide note, though the source didn’t know what it said or who it was addressed to.
Peter was one of Michael Jackson’s music attorneys when he married Bach in 1990. Catherine and Peter were founding members of “C.O.A.C.H. For Kids” which provides free medical services, via mobile medical clinics, for children with their families in low-income areas of Los Angeles County. Catherine Bach and Peter Lopez have two children together: 15-year-old Sophia Isabella Lopez and 12-year-old Laura Esmeralda Lopez.
UPDATE – Radar Online has spoken with Peter Lopez’s mother Eleanor who told the site:
“I just can’t believe it. Catherine called me just now, she said, ‘Peter is dead.’
“I just can’t believe it, I spoke to him just last night and he seemed fine. I’ve been in and out of the hospital lately and he has been calling me every night to check on me and make sure I’m OK.
“Catherine is falling apart. I don’t blame her. She’s in shock.
“She says he went up a hill up there. You go up and there’s a platform and you can see the Valley, you know, from the house up there in the backyard. There’s like a viewing spot up there. She says he went up there and he shot himself. I cannot believe it, you know.
She also states that “he may have had some business problems,” so perhaps that is what motivated Lopez to take his own life. Either way, it seems clear that whatever was troubling him he kept to himself.
Here is a photo of the family attending the P.S. Art’s ‘Express Yourself 2003’ Street Fair at 72 Market Street on November 2, 2003 in Venice, California:
(Photo: Amanda Edwards/Getty Images)
And this is Catherine Bach and Peter Lopez at the Los Angeles Police Department Protective League’s Eagle & Badge Foundation and the Tichi Wilkerson Kassel Parkinson’s Foundation Gala on November 8, 2002 in Beverly Hills, California:
(Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Top Photo: Catherine Bach and Peter Lopez attend the 7th Anniversary Celebration of Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna’s boutique, Belle Gray held in Sherman Oaks, California on February 12th, 2010. Credit: Fame Pictures
