Coroner: Alabama snack food heir killed himself

updated 1:05 p.m. ET, Thurs., March. 25, 2010

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The death of an heir to a well-known Alabama snack food company has been ruled a suicide.

Major Bashinsky's mysterious disappearance March 3 initially raised questions of whether ill will toward the company that makes Golden Flake chips could have played a role. An angry letter about the company and a bag of the chips were found inside his abandoned car.

On Thursday, Chief Deputy Jefferson County Coroner Pat Curry said the 63-year-old lawyer took steps to make it look like he had been abducted and murdered before he killed himself with a gunshot to the head.

The coroner's office said the body, found March 15 in a golf course pond, had rope loosely bound around it, and a label from a Golden Flake bag was in his mouth.