{"id":365723,"date":"2025-12-23T15:24:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T15:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/365723\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T15:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T15:24:07","slug":"prayers-pour-in-for-former-united-states-gymnastics-star-dominique-dawes-following-family-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/365723\/","title":{"rendered":"Prayers pour in for former United States gymnastics star Dominique Dawes following family tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"WDBOY3XMKREYFFXZUCE6Q56JSM\">Former US Olympic gold medalist Dominique Dawes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DSgVLphEZC4\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DSgVLphEZC4\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\">has announced<\/a> that her father-in-law, Leonard Thompson, has been found dead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"5BNYB4LGSRDZJHTRLS3CVOCGZA\">Dawes posted on Instagram over the weekend that Thompson was missing in Virginia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"GSRQZO6WBZCKDMWDGUNSCY5QBI\">\u201cPLEASE HELP! My father-in-law is still missing. He was last seen early Tuesday morning,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DSd2gfOEeak\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DSd2gfOEeak\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\">she shared<\/a>.&#8221; He is more than likely disoriented and confused due to a health episode. Thank you so very much!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"7UVJKI7JKVDJ7EZYGHHKAMLTYY\">Dominique Dawes then posted another update a day later stating that Thompson was last seen in Winchester, Va. and his car was left abandoned in Roanoke, Va.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"YKMBVECBKRGWTCEV4RRB6BAT3Q\">Later, she shared that he was found dead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"HZ5WTLFKJZCJLKRBETMZYK7OSU\">\u201cRest in peace, Papa T. We are holding on to the memories,\u201d Dawes posted. \u201cIt is with a heavy heart that I report my father-in-law has been found and not in the way that we hoped for.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"NHYOSZ7SPZEETOB4NC3T5SGEXI\">\u201cWe take comfort in knowing that he is now with our Lord and Savior. Thank you all for the prayers and support during this very difficult time. Our last moment with him was accompanying him at mass and giving him a hug and my husband and I said, \u2018Get home safely\u2019 \u2026.. Rest in Peace, Papa T.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"XVRXZU5NAZG3NM6NA2XGEE47DA\">The comments to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DSgVLphEZC4\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DSgVLphEZC4\/\">Dawes\u2019 post<\/a> were filled with people offering condolences and prayers to Dawes and her family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"WCJSALIJN5HKBGYBHEWEDB5DHU\">\u201cI am so sorry to hear this, Dominique,\u201d former US Gymnastics team member Dominique Moceanu said. \u201cPrayers to you all. Our family is deeply sorry for your loss. Keeping you in our thoughts and prayers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"IEHU5HTNXJG2NCEMLJOBXZC55M\">Another comment added: \u201cI\u2019m so sorry for your family\u2019s loss. Michele and I will be keeping you all in prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"WZUP75EXRNBRDFPHN7R2FJCBZ4\">Dominique Dawes represented the United States in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games. She won a gold medal in the team all-around in 1996 and also earned three Olympic bronze medals during her career.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former US Olympic gold medalist Dominique Dawes has announced that her father-in-law, Leonard Thompson, has been found dead.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-365723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}