The Bellaire youth soccer coach who was charged last week with sexually assaulting a teenage girl he trained privately has apparently committed suicide.

Ian Crowe, 38, was found dead in his car about 6:30 p.m. Monday on Surfside Beach in Brazoria County, according to the Galveston County Coroner's Office. He had reportedly asphyxiated himself with carbon monoxide.

ABC-13, the Examiners' broadcast news partner, said Crowe's attorney, Steven Halpert, said that in addition to his wife, who is seven months pregnant, Crowe leaves behind one-year-old twins.

He was charged last Thursday with four counts of sexual assault with a child and one count of indecency with a child. Bellaire police said he assaulted the girl in his SUV parked in a Bellaire parking garage several times over a period of about a month.

Authorities said his wife had alerted the family of the alleged victim to inappropriate text messages and e-mails she had found between the girl and her husband. Bellaire police said Crowe had been a suspect in an earlier case of inappropriate conduct with a teenage girl, but that they couldn't make the case. They said they feared there were other victims.

Crowe's attorney told ABC-13 that his client had been fired from his job last Friday. He said Crowe had left notes to his family claiming his innocence but saying he believed he'd already been convicted in the public's eye. He was scheduled to be arraigned in district court on Nov. 17.



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