NEW LONDON, Conn. — The superintendent of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy says the women's basketball coach who committed suicide earlier this month was suspended three days before his death and was under investigation by federal prosecutors.

Fifty-one-year-old Alex Simonka was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his car on March 14. He was the school's women's basketball coach and athletics business manager.

Rear Adm. J. Scott Burhoe says Simonka was put on administrative leave March 11 pending the outcome of a federal investigation into activities within the academy's athletic association, which Simonka headed. It was not immediately clear what those activities were.

A U.S. attorney's office spokesman declined to comment.

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Information from: The Day, http://www.theday.com