Justin L. Mack

The fiery car crash that killed a Scecina High School volleyball coach and teacher in late September has been deemed a suicide.

The Marion County coroner's office said Wednesday that the cause of death for Brian Hawkins was blunt force trauma to the chest. The coroner's office ruled the incident a suicide.

Hawkins slammed his SUV into a bridge support in the 900 block of South Emerson Avenue shortly before 12:30 p.m. on Sept. 23, a crash report obtained by The Indianapolis Star said. The vehicle burst into flames shortly after the head-on crash, and the impact sent debris flying 200 feet.

Hawkins, the only occupant, was killed instantly.

The crash occurred less than two hours after officials with the Indiana State Police served a search warrant at Hawkins' home in the 1400 block of North Hawthorne Lane on allegations of voyeurism.

Hawkins was accused of filming sexual encounters with women he met online without their knowledge or permission, according to a search warrant affidavit. The warrant was filed Sept. 22 in Marion County.

Sgt. Rich Myers of the Indiana State Police said the case was forwarded to the Marion County prosecutor's office earlier this week. Calls placed to the prosecutor's office for more information were not returned Wednesday.

Court documents say the voyeurism investigation began Sept. 10 when a woman whom Hawkins had been dating for three or four months contacted the State Police.

The woman told police that one day she decided to borrow some DVDs from Hawkins' home, court documents said. She said that when she watched the DVDs, she saw footage of Hawkins having sex with three other women.

She said the women did not act as if they knew they were being filmed, the documents said.

On Sept. 17, State Police investigators contacted one of the women who had been video-recorded. The woman said she had no idea she was being recorded.

Both women told police that they were concerned about the behavior because of Hawkins' position as a teacher and volleyball coach, court documents said.

The State Police had not informed Scecina Memorial High School of the investigation.

During the search of Hawkins' home, police found more than 70 DVDs, nearly 50 VHS tapes, a Sony Handycam, a digital camera and DVD recorder. They also found several cellphones and various forms of digital storage media.

Call Star reporter Justin L. Mack at (317) 444-6138. Follow him on Twitter: @justinlmack.