Mark Samoline

A 50-year-old business executive and Marine Corps colonel from Georgia accused of raping a 21-year-old Indiana University student during homecoming weekend killed himself Friday in a hotel north of Atlanta.

A Marriott Residence Inn maid entered a room registered to Mark Samoline and discovered his body just before noon Friday. He was dressed in a Marine Corps officer’s uniform, and there was a plastic bag secured around his neck with duct tape. Near his body, police found a short length of green garden hose and a helium tank with the valve open.

Police reported no sign of struggle or foul play inside Room 143. They found Samoline’s unloaded 9mm handgun in a white plastic bag on a coffee table next to a suicide note. Other items found included a black leather briefcase, $24, a cell phone and a laptop computer. Police at the scene authorized the release of the items to Samoline’s wife.

Samoline checked into the hotel in Norcross around 2 p.m. Thursday. Police said the man’s son told them he had dropped his father off somewhere at 7 a.m. the next day to meet with a lawyer.

Monroe County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Bob Miller said the victim in the rape case is aware of Samoline’s death. “We are offering and arranging for counseling for her, and we have concerns for her safety as well since it’s possible there could be some kind of retaliation,” he said.

Samoline was in Bloomington Homecoming weekend to visit his daughter. He was booked into the Monroe County Jail, posted bond and appeared in court last Monday. He was charged with rape and pleaded not guilty. That day, he agreed to give a blood sample to be tested for any communicable diseases he could have passed on to the woman who made the claim against him.

His accuser said she was drunk and asleep when she awoke in her home on East Eighth Street and realized Samoline had engaged in sex with her without her consent. In a statement to police, Samoline acknowledged the incident had occurred but said the sex was consensual.

He told a Bloomington police detective he was remorseful about the incident and for not using a condom.

Samoline was an international UPS executive. The company had put him on administrative leave pending the outcome of the criminal case against him.

Two Bloomington attorneys Samoline hired to represent him, Geoff Grodner and Megan Lewis, issued a statement this afternoon about their client.

“The death of Mark Samoline is a tragedy for everyone involved,” they wrote. “But, the rush to judgment by the justice system, UPS, the media and the Internet community was more than he could take, even though he strongly and consistently maintained his innocence. While the Constitution provides that an accused person is innocent until proven guilty, this is a tragic example of how today’s society rushes to judgment, without waiting to hear the whole story.”