BALTIMORE (AP) — The gunshot wound that killed a Baltimore police detective one day before he was to testify about police corruption was most likely self-inflicted, an investigative review board has concluded.

It's the latest — and perhaps final — twist in a real-life whodunit that has captivated Baltimore for 10 months. When 43-year-old Detective Sean Suiter was found in November dying from a bullet wound to the skull in a derelict lot, police and the state medical examiner's office swiftly called his death a homicide.

But from the start, there was widespread skepticism about the police version of events: Suiter approached a suspicious man in a vacant lot between row houses, leading to a violent confrontation in which he was shot at close range with his own gun. Nobody has ever been charged in his death.

In their 207-page final report , a seven-member independent review board says all the evidence they've reviewed "simply does not support anyone other than Detective Suiter himself firing the fatal shot."

Among the evidence they cite: The gun barrel was in contact with Suiter's head when the fatal shot was fired. Nobody else's DNA was found on his service weapon. Blood spatter was found on the inside of the right-handed detective's right arm's shirt cuff, indicating his hand and arm were in a high position when the fatal gunshot was fired.

They also say the autopsy revealed no defensive wounds to support the narrative that a violent struggle had taken place with an assailant. His left hand was still clutching his police radio.

"The community should not fear that a 'cop killer' is on the loose," the report states. "The homicide detectives who worked so diligently should not be considered unsuccessful in failing to find a non-existent killer."

They report that hospital personnel at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma initially reported that the fatal bullet entered the left side of the detective's skull. That faulty information was not corrected until four days later when examiners saw the entry wound was actually on the right side of his head, they write.

By that time, an aggressive manhunt for a cop killer was well underway.

City police and members of the independent panel plan to hold a press conference later Wednesday to answer questions about the report, officially released late Tuesday afternoon. The broad findings suggesting Suiter wasn't killed by an attacker were first announced earlier this week by a lawyer for the detective's widow.

Paul Siegrist, a Pennsylvania-based lawyer for Nicole Suiter, said Monday she was "shocked by their determination and very upset."

Suiter's funeral drew thousands of mourners, including politicians and numerous law enforcement officials from various states. At his funeral, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh said his unsolved killing "leaves a stain on our city," while Gov. Larry Hogan said the detective "lived and died a hero."

But new allegations that began surfacing about Suiter's past started creating discrepancies.

During a federal racketeering trial for two detectives who belonged to a wildly corrupt Baltimore police unit called the Gun Trace Task Force, an indicted officer, Momodu Gondo, asserted he started stealing money with Suiter and other sworn protectors about a decade ago.

Gondo's testimony wasn't the first suggestion that Suiter was once involved in shady dealings. Attorney Steven Silverman represented a man whose federal drug conviction was vacated in December after he spent years in prison based on corrupt police work. Silverman alleged that Suiter was among a group of officers dressed in black, wearing face masks and showing no visible badges during the lead-up to the April 2010 incident that led to his client's prosecution.

Former Police Commissioner Darry De Sousa created the review panel earlier this year, saying a fresh perspective was needed to re-examine the Suiter case as the force grappled with the fallout of an explosive federal corruption probe into the rogue gun unit that included Gondo and another disgraced detective, Maurice Ward. They both worked cases with Suiter years before they joined the corrupt squad and ultimately pleaded guilty to corruption charges.

The board's analysis of Suiter's cellphone revealed "substantial deletions," including 75 texts and 313 call log entries. They say Suiter "or someone with access to his phone" deleted Gondo and Ward from his phone's contacts.

In addition, the report says FBI agents attempted to interview Suiter a few weeks before he was found shot in West Baltimore. They said he declined and was served with a subpoena to appear before the grand jury investigating police corruption. He had an offer of "limited immunity" from federal investigators, they said. The report suggests he likely faced a "difficult choice" concerning the grand jury investigation.

A search of his work computer revealed five September searches for the funeral home where he was eventually laid to rest. They also say he spent the last hour of his life ignoring his attorney's attempts to reach him. They had a meeting at 5 p.m. to discuss his scheduled appearance the next day before the grand jury.

"Time was running out. Suiter's futile searches may have signaled a quiet desperation before a final, tragic decision," they wrote.

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David McFadden on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dmcfadd