Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 9, 1995 TAG: 9511090068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SOUTHFIELD, MICH. LENGTH: Short
``There was no cancer,'' Dr. Kanu Virani, deputy chief medical examiner for Oakland County, said Wednesday after an autopsy.
The body of Patricia Cashman was found wrapped in a blanket in the back seat of an old car outside the morgue.
Cashman, who ran a travel agency in San Marcos, Calif., had feared ending up a ``vegetable,'' unable to care for herself, Kevorkian lawyer Geoffrey Fieger said.
Fieger said the woman had suffered for three years from breast cancer that had spread throughout her body and recently had lost her ability to walk.
Virani said he would have expected to find cancer in her lymph nodes, liver or other internal organs but found none. He said he hadn't examined her brain and spinal cord, but it was highly unlikely the cancer would appear there if it hadn't shown up elsewhere.
In a July 6 letter, Cashman told Kevorkian that she ``would go to almost any length to avoid ever being on pain pills again because of the terrible side effects that I suffered.''
Sheriff's Lt. William Kucyk said detectives were trying to contact Kevorkian, but ``we're certainly not optimistic he will submit to an interview.''
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB