O.C. Woman’s Suicide Is Reported

A Westminster woman with terminal breast cancer checked into a Michigan motel this week and killed herself, reportedly with the help of an associate of Dr. Jack Kevorkian.

Police in the Detroit suburb of Romulus said they discovered the body of Rosaline Haas, 59, in a motel room near the Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Thursday night, after receiving an anonymous phone call at 7:50 directing them to contact Kevorkian lawyer Geoffrey Fieger.

Fieger was not available for comment, but he told the Associated Press that Haas committed suicide Thursday night with help from Kevorkian associate Dr. Georges Rene Reding, a retired psychiatrist from the Kalamazoo, Mich., area. Haas’ sister, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, also said Rosaline Haas was aided in her death.

In October 1996, Reding was charged with assisting in several suicides along with Kevorkian. The charges were later dropped.

Kevorkian has been acquitted of assisted suicide charges at three trials. A fourth case ended in a mistrial last June.

Haas had lost her health insurance in a messy divorce and was making a meager living as a manager of six low-income apartments when she was diagnosed with breast cancer several years ago, the sister said.

She did not say whether Haas had received government-funded care for indigents.

“She wanted to live. She tried very hard to live. But the cancer ate her up alive,” her sister said, standing outside her sister’s apartment, where she was collecting personal belongings, fighting an infestation of ants, and battling tears.

“There isn’t anything I can say about my sister’s death except that pain and having no insurance is a curse of our society. She was just one poor woman who had breast cancer, and nobody cared.”

Police said in a statement that the woman later identified as Haas had checked into the Detroit area motel at 6:20 a.m., walking with a cane. She was accompanied by an unidentified woman.

No note was found in the room, police said.

“It’s her personal story, and her personal tragedy,” the sister said. “I think her death says it all. I just wish I had more power to be an advocate for women with breast cancer. You shouldn’t have to die in fear of dying. This shouldn’t have to happen.”

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Times staff writer Robert Ourlian contributed to this report.