Authorities Probe Death of McCartney

Five days after Linda McCartney’s death, Santa Barbara County authorities said Wednesday that they have opened an investigation to help answer growing doubts about whether the wife of former Beatle legend Paul McCartney really died here.

The county Sheriff’s Department opened the inquiry when no death certificate was filed with its coroner’s division after a McCartney family spokesman was quoted in worldwide news accounts saying that Linda McCartney had died in Santa Barbara on Friday, Sgt. Jim Peterson said.

Nor did the county authorize Linda McCartney’s cremation, as required by law, Peterson said, although her ashes were later reportedly scattered on a family farm in southern England.

“We don’t know that she died,” Peterson said. “We don’t know where she died, and we don’t know when she died.”

Officials in Tucson declined to help unravel the mystery over Linda McCartney’s death, saying that they could not confirm media reports that the former photographer had actually died at an estate the McCartney family has owned there for nearly two decades.

Confidentiality laws in Arizona prevented officials from saying whether a death certificate had been filed there for McCartney, 56, who attended the University of Arizona in the mid-1960s, said David Dingeldine, chief of the Pima County attorney’s office civil division.

“We can’t disclose that,” he said. “That’s final until somebody figures out there’s some sort of hanky-panky going on in Pima County and presents some kind of evidence to that effect.”

Peterson said it was premature to speculate on whether there was anything suspicious about McCartney’s death, which her doctor attributed to breast cancer that had spread to her liver. The department’s investigation might simply reveal a paperwork snafu, Peterson said.

Santa Barbara County investigators hope to clear up the matter soon. They have spoken with hospitals and mortuaries in the area--none of which had any information about McCartney’s death--and they are seeking to contact her New York doctor and the family publicist who first reported details of her death, Peterson said.

“We would just like to get to the bottom of this. Obviously our hearts go out to the McCartney family at this time,” he said.

A spokesman for Paul McCartney was quick to dismiss the suggestion that there was anything out of the ordinary about Linda McCartney’s death or that anyone may have assisted in it. Linda McCartney had battled cancer for at least two years.

“Any suggestion that her death was assisted is complete and absolute rubbish, a total nonsense,” said Geoff Baker, a spokesman for McCartney.

Medical Opinion

A statement released by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City said that in the medical opinion of Dr. Larry Norton, Linda McCartney’s oncologist, she “died of natural causes with metastatic breast cancer.”

Another statement released by Paul McCartney in England also denied suggestions that his wife’s death may have been assisted.

But McCartney’s statement appeared to leave more confusion than it cleared up about where his wife died.

“When Linda died last Friday with her family around her, it was in a place that was private to her and her family,” Paul McCartney’s statement said. “Everyone has always assumed that it was Santa Barbara, Calif. So, in an effort to allow the family time to get back to England in peace and in private, it was stated that she had died in Santa Barbara.”

Wednesday’s turn of events provoked talk and speculation among administrators at Santa Barbara’s three main hospitals and two funeral homes. Officials from all five said in interviews that they were not involved in arrangements surrounding Linda McCartney’s death.

Typical was the reaction of Elizabeth Amadeo of Welch-Ryce-Haider Funeral Chapel. “We don’t know anything. We’re as clueless as anyone,” she said. “She was never here.”

Dana Mazzetti, a longtime friend of the McCartneys and a Hope Ranch resident who said she met Paul while working at the Beatles’ record company in London, said that even if Linda did not die in Santa Barbara, she is sure there is an innocent explanation.

“I know that the McCartneys are not the the type that would do anything illegal. Whatever the circumstances are, I’m sure it was done to protect the family and its privacy,” said Mazzetti, who organized a public memorial for Linda McCartney attended by 600 people on Tuesday. But, she added, “We may never know.”

The McCartneys’ publicist reported that Linda McCartney was on vacation in Santa Barbara with her family when she died. The statement said that two days before her death, she and Paul had been horseback riding, one of her passions.

Such an active last few days runs somewhat counter to the typical deterioration of a woman in the final stage of breast cancer that has spread to the liver, said Dr. Linnea Chap, an oncologist at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center. Typically, she would be lethargic and fatigued, possibly somewhat confused or in a coma-like state, Chap said.

“The way it has been portrayed probably is a bit over-optimistic given how she probably felt a few days before her death,” said Chap, who emphasized that she was not familiar with the details of McCartney’s medical condition.

“We don’t know how well she felt when she went horseback riding,” Chap said. “In all likelihood she was feeling quite weak and may have simply wanted to go ride one last time.”

Times staff writers Terence Monmaney in Los Angeles and Julie Cart in Phoenix and correspondent Marcia Meier in Santa Barbara contributed to this report.