Victim in Aided Suicide Indeed Ill, Expert Says

The latest person to die in Jack Kevorkian’s presence was indeed terminally ill, an outside expert said Thursday as questions arose over whether the man known as Dr. Death had moved too fast this time.

While Kevorkian’s lawyer said the breast cancer that spread through Patricia Cashman’s body was crumbling her bones, a preliminary autopsy found no visible traces of the disease.

At the request of the Associated Press, Dr. Jeffrey Forman, vice chairman of radiology at Wayne State University School of Medicine, reviewed some of Cashman’s medical records, which were provided by Kevorkian’s lawyer.

Cashman did have bone cancer, but it wouldn’t necessarily have been detected during a routine autopsy, Forman said.

Cashman, 58, of San Marcos, Calif., was found Wednesday in a car near a morgue. Kevorkian’s lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger, said Cashman had undergone a mastectomy three years ago and suffered “excruciating” pain from the disease spreading through her body.

Kevorkian, appearing Thursday on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” challenged the Oakland County prosecutor to charge him in Cashman’s death.

“I dare you to charge me. D-A-R-E. If you don’t you’re either a coward or a liar,” Kevorkian said.

Richard Thompson, the Oakland County prosecutor, said a decision on whether to charge Kevorkian had not yet been made.

“This is not a game,” Thompson said. “As a prosecutor, you’re not going to make decisions based on a dare.”

Kevorkian, a retired pathologist, has acknowledged attending 26 suicides since 1990, most involving the use of carbon monoxide.

Kevorkian already faces assisted-suicide charges in four deaths in Oakland County. He could get five years in prison in each case if convicted. Prosecutors failed last month to have him placed under house arrest while he awaits trial.

The autopsy found that Cashman died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Prosecutors and investigators said they would wait for a final report before deciding whether to charge Kevorkian in her death.