California IN BRIEF : SAN DIEGO : POW Activist Commits Suicide

The wife of the only American soldier still listed as a prisoner of war in Southeast Asia has committed suicide. Dorothy Marian Shelton died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at her San Diego home late last week, according to the San Diego County coroner’s office. The 57-year-old mother of five was a founder of the national movement to account for all servicemen officially listed as POWs or missing in action from the Vietnam era. Police said she left a brief suicide note to her family and was apparently suffering from depression. Her husband, Air Force Col. Charles Shelton, was shot down while conducting a secret mission over northern Laos on April 23, 1965, his 33rd birthday. He was captured several days later. While Pentagon officials have speculated that Shelton probably died in Laos in the mid-1960s, his is the sole remaining name on the Southeast Asia POW list and his wife continued to receive his monthly active-duty paychecks. She often criticized the U.S. government for abandoning her husband and other missing soldiers.