NEW YORK (AP) -- An accountant was found dead in a hotel bathtub with his face covered by duct tape in what authorities say was a suicide.
Paul Mento, 52, worked for The Associated Press for 26 years, including more than 15 as budget director. His body was discovered Monday afternoon at a Best Western in Brooklyn by a hotel maid, police said. He had checked in earlier that day, police said.
Mento apparently suffocated because of the duct tape. The medical examiner ruled the death a suicide and said it was caused by asphyxia due to obstruction of the nose and mouth, spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.
Police are unsure of the circumstances that preceded Mento's death, but investigators have information that he had a gambling problem, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation has not been completed.
Police said he left no suicide note.
Mento attended St. John's University and started at the AP as an audit clerk in the payroll department in 1978 and worked his way up to budget director in 1988. He received an MBA from Columbia University in 1995, and left the AP in 2004.
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