Lawyer’s cause of death not yet known

It’s not every day that a well-known Nashville lawyer, married for 25 years and the father of two children, decides to drive to Center Hill Lake in DeKalb County to take his own life.

Unfortunately, it’s looking more and more like that’s exactly what happened to Robert “Bob” Whitaker, although officials who know are reluctant to tell. (Whitaker is pictured here in a photo taken from the website of Williamson Memorial Funeral Home and Gardens.) DeKalb County Sheriff Patrick Ray told NashvillePost.com Thursday that the county medical examiner is in the process of officially determining Whitaker’s cause of death.

“We have nothing to report at this time and won’t until the medical examiner has finished its work,” Ray said.

Dr. James Wall, a Smithville family practitioner, who serves at least part of the time as the DeKalb County Coroner, was the first official other than law enforcement called to the scene.

“By all appearances, it was a suicide and we felt like we needed some professional help with this one,” Wall said. “So we called in the medical examiner.”

Further calls to the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed that a death certificate is in process and in fact is complete except for the official cause of death. 

Officials confirmed that Whitaker’s autopsy — a procedural requirement for suicide victims in DeKalb County — was completed Wednesday. It was also confirmed that the autopsy results, and the subsequent death certificate completion, might take up to six months.

NashvillePost.com first reported on Whitaker's death earlier this week [2].