Kevorkian Assists Woman’s Death Despite Raid at Motel

Less than a day after police burst into a motel room to “save” a woman from committing suicide with Jack Kevorkian’s help, she killed herself Saturday with Kevorkian by her side.

“She said, ‘How dare they,’ ” Kevorkian’s lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger, said Saturday in announcing the death of Isabel Correa.

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Correa, 60, of Fresno, Calif., had said she suffered from a spinal cord disorder that left her in intense pain for six years and forced her to use a wheelchair. “I came to die,” she said Friday before becoming the 40th person known to have died with Kevorkian’s help since 1990.

Kevorkian himself drove the woman’s body to Beaumont Hospital in nearby Royal Oak at 2:05 p.m. EDT Saturday and handed emergency room workers a card identifying the woman, a hospital spokeswoman said. A representative of the medical examiner’s office was sent to pick up the body.

Correa was meeting with Kevorkian at a local motel Friday night when two officials from the Oakland County prosecutor’s office and as many as 20 police officers “pushed in a door,” halted the session and said they were there to “save” Correa, Fieger said.

“Despite the efforts of those thugs last night, Isabel Correa ended her pain today with the help of Dr. Kevorkian,” Fieger said Saturday. “We’re here today to celebrate a blow for freedom.”

Fieger earlier had threatened a $25-million lawsuit because the police officers had no warrant.

Police Chief Jeffrey Werner said Saturday the officers didn’t need a warrant because they had reason to believe a death was about to occur. He likened the situation to one in which someone is holding a gun to his head or about to jump from a bridge.

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No arrests were made. But Fieger said the officers seized Correa’s medicine, a sympathy card and her rosary.

Police said the medicine was returned to Correa after she identified herself. And they said six officers, not 20, went into the room.

Oakland County Prosecutor Richard Thompson said at his own news conference Saturday that Correa’s brother-in-law told police at the scene that he was against her seeking Kevorkian’s help.

“He indicated that family members had tried to talk her out of it. . . . He had come here against his better judgment.”

Werner said police were tipped off by the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department.