Charleston, South Carolina, investigators have released their findings in the death of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, who was found dead in his truck in March after he failed to show up for his second day of depositions in a lawsuit against the aerospace manufacturer.

After Barnett failed to arrive for the proceedings, his lawyers called for a wellness check, and he was found with a gunshot wound to the head in the parking lot of his hotel, according to authorities.

He had a pistol in his right hand, and investigators later confirmed gunshot residue on his hand. They found a single shell casing in the truck and a suicide note on his passenger seat.

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“All findings were consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” the report from Charleston County Coroner Bobbi Jo O’Neal reads.

READ THE CORONER’S REPORT HERE – APP USERS, CLICK HERE:

His official cause of death is the gunshot wound. The manner “is best deemed, ‘Suicide.’” the coroner concluded.

Additionally, police said he was locked inside his vehicle alone when they found him, along with the key fob. They found no signs of unusual travel patterns or communications in his phone records, and hotel surveillance video showed him leaving the hotel by himself before he reversed into a parking spot a few minutes later. 

No one came or went from the vehicle until the grim discovery the following morning.

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Police said records showed Barnett bought the handgun legally in 2000, and they found his fingerprints on the notebook containing his suicide letter.

He was suing Boeing, claiming that he had been retaliated against, harassed and spied on by the company.

One of Barnett’s lawyers, Robert Turkewitz, previously told Fox News that he didn’t think the aerospace giant had played a role in his client’s death. However, he added that “it just didn’t make sense” that he would kill himself.

Barnett’s legal team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the coroner’s findings.

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Barnett worked for Boeing for over three decades before retiring in 2017 as a quality-control engineer. In 2019, he told the BBC that Boeing would rush to get its 787 Dreamliner jets off the production line, compromising safety.  

Boeing 787 Dreamliners are built at the aviation company’s North Charleston, South Carolina, assembly plant on May 30, 2023. (Juliette Michel/AFP via Getty Images)

In January, Barnett told TMZ that he was concerned that Boeing was returning its 737 Max 9 jets to the sky too quickly, after an incident in which an Alaska Airlines jet’s door panel blew off mid-flight.

Unrelated to Barnett’s lawsuit, Boeing’s CEO Dave Calhoun announced he would be resigning by the end of the year amid the company’s ongoing struggles.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

WASHINGTON – Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Friday spoke to Fox News about the upside-down American flag seen flying outside his home in the days following the Jan. 6 Capitol protests, saying his wife displayed it in response to insults directed at her from a neighbor. 

Alito weighed in after The New York Times first reported on the story Thursday, in which it said the upside-down flag — a symbol adopted by some Trump supporters disputing the results of the 2020 presidential election — appeared outside Alito’s home in Alexandria, Virginia, on Jan. 17, 2021. 

Alito said the saga in his neighborhood began in the days around Jan. 6, 2021, when a neighbor living down the street put up a sign that read “F— Trump” about 50 feet away from a children’s bus stop. 

He said his wife, Martha-Ann, then spoke with those neighbors about the sign and the conversation was not well received. 

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Alito told Fox News those neighbors then put up a sign directly attacking his wife and personally blaming her for the events that transpired on Jan. 6 at the nation’s capital. 

He said that during a walk in the neighborhood with his wife, one person who lived at the property with the signage then got into an argument with her — at one point calling her derogatory language “including the C-word.” 

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Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and his wife Martha-Ann attend a ceremonial swearing-in at the East Room of the White House in February 2006. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Following that incident, Alito said Martha-Ann was distraught and decided to make some sort of statement by hanging the American flag upside down outside their home. 

Alito told Fox News he had no role in the flag decision, and it was flying outside their property only “for a short time.” 

Justice Samuel Alito delivers a commencement speech at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio on Saturday. (Franciscan University of Steubenville)

He added that he felt he had no right or ability to control or order around his wife and that some neighbors on his street have been “very political.” 

The story surrounding the flag outside Alito’s home comes as the Supreme Court is deciding on former President Trump’s immunity case. 

Pro-life officials on Friday celebrated a South Carolina judge’s denial of a Planned Parenthood motion to weaken the state’s six-week abortion ban.

A state judge in Columbia ruled against the reproductive health care organization’s demand for a preliminary injunction that would slacken South Carolina’s six-week abortion restriction to nine weeks, according to The State newspaper.

While Planned Parenthood could reportedly appeal Fifth Circuit Judge Daniel Coble’s decision, proponents of the 2023 law expressed confidence the Palmetto State will remain a safe haven for the unborn.

“South Carolina’s heartbeat law secured another legal victory yesterday, with the trial court denying Planned Parenthood’s preliminary injunction,” Brandon Charochak, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, told Fox News Digital.

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“Life will continue to be protected in South Carolina, and the governor will continue his fight to protect it,” he said.

The state law defines a “fetal heartbeat” as “cardiac activity or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart, within the gestational sac,” according to the Charleston Post & Courier. Coble wrote in his Thursday decision that the state legislature clearly intended a six-week time frame in that regard.

In its filing, Planned Parenthood reportedly argued that since the new law was enacted, 75% of women who sought abortions were denied the procedure because of the time constraint. The organization also alleged almost 7/8 of those patients could have undergone an abortion if they were permitted at the nine-week mark.

SOUTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR SIGNS FETAL HEARTBEAT BILL

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signs into law a bill banning almost all abortions in the state on Feb. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

Critics also argued that many women do not know they are pregnant yet at six weeks.

The State of South Carolina, however, testified that an unborn baby’s heart is beating “steadily, repetitively and rhythmically” six weeks in, even if the organ is not fully formed yet.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Planned Parenthood-South Atlantic president and CEO Jenny Black expressed disappointment in Coble’s decision.

“Given the impact of this case on thousands of patients across South Carolina who have been unfairly denied abortion care, we will continue to demand that the courts apply the law as written. This fight is not over,” Black said.

“Our highest priority is giving our patients the care they need — no matter what. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic remains committed to helping every patient navigate the unjust and inhumane confines of South Carolina’s abortion ban.”

The heartbeat law had not been without its past legal impediments. In 2023, the South Carolina Supreme Court struck down a preceding six-week ban, citing right-to-privacy concerns.

It later upheld a second attempt at a six-week prohibition that was drafted a few months after the original denial.

At the time, the Center for Reproductive Rights argued in a statement that the only situational change was the retirement and replacement of a female justice who led the majority opinion striking down the prior law.

The new law does contain exceptions for the life and health of the mother, as well as in cases of rape or incest, so long as those are reported to law enforcement within 12 weeks.

The state only has three listed abortion providers, all in its major cities: Greenville, Columbia and Charleston.