The Free Press’s Joe Seidel and Eric Seals report some disturbing details regarding former Red Wings #1 overall pick Joe Murphy, who is homeless again in the Northwestern Ontario city of Kenora:
Dozens of people have tried to get Murphy off the streets of this small tourist town the past two years, including the NHL Alumni Association, members of the local police department, former teammates, his lawyer and an entire team of mental health experts and social workers. He refuses almost all of it.
Murphy stayed in an extended-stay motel paid by the NHL Alumni Association for several months last winter but moved out, although he can’t offer a coherent reason. He spent time at a hospital in Thunder Bay, Ontario, on the banks of Lake Superior, for a court-ordered mental-health evaluation. But he’s back in Kenora. He slept in a tent but he says it ripped. And now, he is back sleeping on benches, in doorways, inside a tunnel and under a gas station sign at the edge of this town of about 15,000, about 340 miles north of Minneapolis.
Continued, and the Free Press also posted a video of Murphy’s struggles:
