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Baptist university professor found dead in gay bathhouse

Sauna in Finland. Man relaxing in steam room in health spa, cabin, home or wellness hotel. Traditional Finnish summer. Old wood interior. Water bucket and ladle. Hot temperature therapy.
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A professor at a Baptist university who went missing during a conference in Florida was found dead in a gay sauna. Police are investigating but say his death “does not appear suspicious.”

David Hanbury — a 37-year-old psychology professor at Averett University, a private Baptist school in Danville, Virginia — was reported missing late last Friday night while attending the Southeastern Psychological Association Conference in Orlando.

Last Saturday, he was found dead at Club Orlando, a gay sauna. Police haven’t publicly revealed a cause of death, though officers said his death “does not appear suspicious at this time,” according to USA Today.

“It is with a heavy heart that we share the heartbreaking update of the passing of Dr. David Hanbury,” Averett President Tiffany Franks wrote in a statement published via Facebook on Sunday. “On behalf of the entire Averett community, we send our condolences and prayers of support to Dr. Hanbury’s family, friends, and all others upon whom he had a lasting impact.”

Hanbury joined the Averett faculty over eight years ago. On Monday, the university held an evening moment for prayer and grieving on its student center lawn.

“We’re all struggling and this is so hard. I’ve never seen through anything like this,” Hanbury’s brother JJ wrote in response to the death, according to The Advocate. “I don’t know what I am going to do without my youngest brother that drove me insane all the time, but my world will never be the same without him. He was only 37 and supposed to be with me for life.”

Despite the university’s Baptist denomination, its student handbook forbids “harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or questioning students,” two of its upper-level sociology classes have included a study of “homosexuals” as a minority group and the modern-day LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.

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