Frankfort, Ky. - A U.S. Census worker found dead near a secluded Kentucky cemetery told a friend details of how he planned to kill himself but make it look like he was murdered, according to the State Police case file released Friday.

William E. Sparkman Jr., 51, told Lowell Adams he had practiced asphyxiating himself by placing a bag over his head, but said when he was going "to do it for real" he planned to hang himself from a tree near the cemetery, Adams told police.

Sparkman asked Adams to help him because he wasn't sure he could complete the suicide alone, but Adams refused, according to the file.

People visiting the cemetery Sept. 12 saw Sparkman's body and called police. He was wearing only socks, and his hands were bound with duct tape, though he could have moved them several inches apart. There was a rope around his neck tied to a tree, though his feet were in contact with the ground.

His glasses and identification card were taped to his head, and the word "fed" was written on his chest in black marker about 10 inches high.

The odd details of the death touched off a furor in the media. There was speculation on the Internet that Sparkman had been killed because he was a federal employee and some people in Clay County, Ky., didn't like the government, or that he had stumbled upon someone growing marijuana or making methamphetamine in the poor county.

However, after a lengthy investigation police concluded Sparkman had killed himself but attempted to make the death look like a homicide.

Police think Sparkman was trying to preserve payments under two $300,000 life insurance policies that would have paid off if he died accidentally or was murdered, but not if he committed suicide.

The details from Adams were one key factor in the conclusion by police that Sparkman killed himself, but there were several others.

Among those facts, according to the police report: There were no wounds to indicate Sparkman had been assaulted or fought with anyone; the way the word "fed" was written indicated he wrote it himself; there was no sign of a struggle where he died; no one else's DNA was found on Sparkman or at the scene; and potential suspects were ruled out, in some cases after taking polygraph tests.