Kevorkian Home Probed; Man May Have Wavered in Suicide

ROYAL OAK, Mich. — Authorities searched Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s apartment and began a homicide investigation Thursday, citing evidence that a man who sought the self-styled suicide doctor’s help had wanted to back out of killing himself.

Oakland County Prosecutor Richard Thompson and Macomb County Prosecutor Carl Marlinga told reporters a right-to-life advocate recovered a document from the garbage of a Kevorkian associate that proves Hugh Gale changed his mind at the last minute.

They say the document is believed to be the minutes taken from Gale’s Feb. 15 death at his Roseville home in Macomb County. The 70-year-old Gale died after breathing carbon monoxide through a mask attached to a gas canister.

No charges have been filed, but the prosecutors said they are now investigating Gale’s death as a homicide.

The search of Kevorkian’s house came on the same day that the governor signed an immediate ban on assisted suicides after the Legislature passed it. The ban originally was approved in December and was to start March 30. But Kevorkian’s foes said they feared that ill people were rushing to beat that ban.

Of 15 suicides that Kevorkian has assisted since 1990, seven--including three last week--have come since Gov. John Engler signed the original ban. On Thursday, the House voted 92 to 10 to make the law effective immediately, and only 90 minutes later the Senate approved it 28 to 6.

In signing the bill later Thursday, Engler said: “Mr. Kevorkian has clearly crossed the line. Most of the people of Michigan are uncomfortable with the power he’s assumed for himself.”