Thomas Joseph Byrne, 40, of The Woodlands, who worked as a supervisory special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration's Houston office, died

Thomas Joseph Byrne, 40, of The Woodlands, who worked as a supervisory special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration's Houston office, died Saturday in a New Orleans hospital from injuries he suffered in an assault and robbery Aug. 28, officials said.Byrne had been in New Orleans attending the Organized Crime Enforcement Drug Task Force conference when he was attacked, said Garrison Courtney, a spokesman for the DEA's Washington headquarters.The agent apparently was walking to his hotel from an unknown location when the robbery occurred.Byrne may have been the victim of an abduction, because he was found on a street about 40 blocks from where he was last seen, according to information posted on the www.policelink.com Web site.A passer-by found Byrne in the road at Interstate 610 and Interstate 10 and called for help, said Commander Bob Young of the New Orleans Police Department.
The agent was taken to a hospital, where he underwent several surgeries before he died Saturday night.Byrne is survived by his wife, Maureen, and four children, ages 8, 6, 4 and 2.Fellow agents were gathered Wednesday at the Byrne home in The Woodlands, where his family declined to comment.He joined the DEA in 1992 as an intelligence research specialist and worked in the agency's Miami field division and its Bahamas office before being reassigned to Houston in 2006.Many of Byrne's relatives are current or former federal law enforcement agents themselves. His father is a retired DEA special agent living in Virginia, and his father-in-law is a retired FBI agent. Other in-laws also work or previously worked for federal law enforcement agencies.The city's police are investigating with the help of the DEA, FBI and U.S. Marshals Service field offices in New Orleans.
Two people — Joseph Miller and Ameal Parker — have been arrested on state charges of possession of stolen property and possession of an access device card, New Orleans police said. Their birthdates and hometowns were unavailable because police computers were still down after Hurricane Gustav.The two are accused of using Byrne's credit cards, said Violet Szeleczky, a spokeswoman with the DEA's Houston office.

No murder charges have been filed but the investigation is continuing, said Young.