Boston News

The "nicest man in rock and roll" was also apparently a troubled man.

New Hampshire police and the family of late Boston frontman Brad Delp said Wednesday that his sudden death at age 55 last Friday was a suicide.

"He was a man who gave all he had to give to everyone around him, whether family, friends, fans or strangers," Delp's family said in a statement issued by the Atkinson Police Department.

"He gave as long as he could, as best he could, and he was very tired. We take comfort in knowing that he is now, at last, at peace."

Delp's fiancée, Pamela Sullivan, called 911 when she returned to their Atkinson home Friday morning after spending a night out with friends and spotted a dryer vent tube connected to the exhaust pipe of Delp's car. She told police that she had tried to reach Delp several times on the phone before going back to the house.

Police found a note taped to the garage door reading, "To whoever finds this I have hopefully committed suicide. Plan B was to asphyxiate myself in the car."

Another note taped to a door at the top of the stairs warned that there was carbon monoxide in the house.

"I take complete and sole responsibility for my present situation," it read. "I have lost my desire to live." In addition to giving instructions on how to contact Sullivan, Delp wrote, "Unfortunately she is totally aware of what I have done."

Toxicology tests performed by the state medical examiner's office showed that Delp died from carbon monoxide poisoning after shutting himself inside a bathroom with two charcoal grills, Lieutenant William  Baldwin said. His head was resting on a pillow when the musician, a longtime vegetarian who had been known for his clean living, was found.

A note that police found paper-clipped to Delp's shirt collar read, "Mr. Brad Delp. J'ai une ame solitaire. I am a lonely soul."

Authorities also found four sealed letters in Delp's home office addressed to Sullivan, with whom he'd been planning to swap vows this summer, his two children, their mother, Micki Delp, and another unidentified couple. Baldwin said that police turned the letters over to the family without reading them.

Fans paid their respects to Delp over the weekend, leaving flowers outside his home and posting thousands of comments on news and music blogs. His family, who said that they are planning a private funeral and will announce a public memorial at a later date, is asking that any donations be made to the American Heart Association in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Boston cofounder Tom Scholz said in a statement on the band's Website that plans for a summer tour have been canceled.

"My heart goes out to his wonderful fiancée Pamela, his two children, other family members, his close friends and bandmates, and to the millions of people whose lives were made a little brighter by the sound of his voice," Scholz said. "He will be dearly missed."

(Originally published Mar. 14 at 5:39 p.m. PT)