Mark Fuhrman, detective central to OJ Simpson murder trial, dies at 74

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(KTLA) – Mark Fuhrman, the disgraced Los Angeles police detective who discovered the infamous bloody glove in the O.J. Simpson murder case and later pleaded no contest to perjury, has died at age 74.

Fuhrman died May 12 in Idaho, where he had been living, after battling an aggressive form of cancer, a source told TMZ. He was hospitalized for roughly a week before his death.

The Kootenai County, Idaho, medical examiner’s office confirmed his death in a statement to KTLA.

“The death certificate is confidential in Idaho. There will be no other information provided through this office,” Chief Deputy Coroner Lynette Acebedo said.

Fuhrman’s testimony was central to the prosecution’s case against Simpson, who was accused of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman outside her Brentwood home in June 1994.

Fuhrman testified that he discovered key evidence at Simpson’s Rockingham estate, most notably the bloody glove that prosecutors said linked the former football star turned actor to the killings.

Simpson’s defense team later produced a recording of Fuhrman using a racial slur, contradicting his earlier testimony that he had never done so. The recording opened the door for Simpson’s attorneys to argue that Fuhrman had planted evidence.

A jury ultimately found Simpson not guilty in what became known as “The Trial of the Century,” though he was later found civilly liable for the deaths of Brown Simpson and Goldman.

Fuhrman retired from the LAPD in 1995 and pleaded no contest to perjury the following year. He was sentenced to probation and a nominal fine. He later reemerged as a law enforcement forensics expert and commentator for Fox News.

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