A Missouri man who was photographed marching in the violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 killed himself just as he was scheduled to face trial on federal drug charges, CNN reports.
According to a report from the Texas County Coroner’s Office in Missouri, Teddy Joseph Von Nukem, 35, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound the same day he was scheduled to be in court in Arizona, facing four counts relating to illegal import and sale of fentanyl.
Von Nukem, whose photos at the alt-right rally in a large group of men chanting and holding tiki torches went viral, failed to show up to court on January 30, with the jury in his drug trial already seated, according to documents from federal court for the District of Arizona.
Ten days later, he was found dead in a hay shed on his property in Hartshorn, Missouri, having shot himself with a handgun, the coroner’s report said.
A suicide note was found at the scene, the coroner said.
He is survived by his wife and five children, according to an obituary published by a local funeral home. The federal prosecutor in Von Nukem’s drug case, Matthew Eltringham, did not respond to CNN’s request for comment Tuesday afternoon.
