Suicide

Since 1994 Oregon physicians have been permitted by statute to help their patients commit suicide. The federal government's challenge to that law will be argued on Wednesday before the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, the court is likely to base its eventual decision on legal technicalities rather than on the real issue: an individual's unconditional right to commit suicide. The Oregon law that is under attack permits a doctor to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to a mentally competent, terminally ill patient who makes written and oral requests, consults two physicians, and endures a mandatory waiting period.

Preliminary autopsy results indicate the father of Boyle County Sheriff LeeRoy Hardin apparently committed suicide, Kentucky State Police said. James Hardin, 66, was found dead of a gunshot wound Monday evening at his trailer in Junction City. His body was on a couch and a pistol was laying nearby on the floor, police said. "There is nothing to indicate that it was anything other than a self-inflicted wound," said KSP Sgt. Steve Owen, who declined further comment.

STANFORD - Tanya Shelton, the woman accused of taking a newborn baby from Fort Logan Hospital in April, was treated and released at the hospital Sunday for undisclosed injuries. She has since been placed on suicide watch in isolation at the Lincoln County Regional Jail, according to the jail. The jail, the hospital, and her lawyer, Ted Dean, all declined to comment on the extent of her injuries. Shelton was arrested on kidnapping and burglary charges after allegedly taking newborn Grayci Barrows from the hospital in April.

A death investigation is under way after a man was found dead of a gunshot wound inside a white pickup truck on Main Street Tuesday night. Capt. Harvey Craycraft of the Winchester Police Department said the man, Michael L. Nickel, 46, was discovered about 8 p.m. in the municipal parking lot between Bridges & Lane Hardware and Harper's Pawn Shop. Some witnesses who were being questioned by police said they had been asked not to speak with anyone about the incident. About 9 p.m., two women showed up and one started screaming and told police the man was her fiance.

STANFORD — Authorities investigating the weekend death of a Stanford woman are waiting on test results to determine if she was murdered or committed suicide. Lincoln County Coroner Farris Marcum said Tuesday that preliminary autopsy results showed Kathy Miracle died of a single gunshot wound to her chest Saturday in her home on Maxwell Street. A .38-caliber handgun was found near the body and a single bullet was found lodged in the sofa where Miracle was lying, Marcum said. Miracle’s husband, Ricky Miracle, has been read his rights and is considered a suspect in the case, which is being investigated by Stanford police Detective Barry Allen, but has not been charged, Deputy Coroner John Proffitt said.

It's not an easy question to ask: "Are you thinking about killing yourself?" But it's one that could easily prevent a suicide, said Carolyn Burtner, an educator with the Clark County Health Department. She will lead three one-time classes in Winchester titled "Question, Persuade, Refer" beginning Monday morning. "It's not designed for people to become counselors or interfere in other's lives," Burtner said. "It's designed strictly for people to be able to recognize signs of people having suicidal thoughts.

Late one evening, a man sat in his vehicle in a city parking lot on a crowded Main Street and fatally shot himself. A few years ago, another man shot and killed himself just outside the emergency room doors of the local hospital. Only several weeks ago, Clark County's coroner drove to another county, checked himself into a motel and took his life by overdosing on pills. Those are only the ones you've read about. Most of the time, when someone commits suicide, you don't read about it. The Winchester Sun, like most newspapers, has an unwritten policy that unless a suicide is in some way unusual, involves a public figure or is done in a public place or in a visible way, or there is a question as to whether it's suicide or homicide, we don't report it. Suicide is such a tragedy, so personal - and, sadly, so common - that we believe it's better to respect the privacy of the deceased's family and other loved ones than to treat such a death as news.

The Cooperative Extension Service will host a QPR training on Thursday, Sept. 11 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Extension Office. QPR teaches the three simple steps, question, persuade and refer, that can help anyone learn to recognize the warning signs of suicide. To register, call the Clark County Extension Office at 744-4682.

Dear Editor, The bitter outcome of assisted suicide is a culture callous towards life. In his article "Assisted Suicide: A Moral Right,� Thomas Bowden makesseveral profoundly erroneous arguments. First, suicide is always a theft from the rich network of relationships in which each one of us exists. Though Bowden states that "each person exists as an end in himself,� we realize that we are not the authors and owners of our own lives. We are part of a web of relationships that cannot ethically be ignored.

LIBERTY - Leon Scott of Creston was found to be mentally ill and guilty of three counts of second degree manslaughter and one count of first degree assault Friday. He was on trial here because on Nov. 8, 2002, while high on anti-anxiety medicine, he crashed his car into one carrying two elderly couples returning from vacation on U.S. 127. The jury recommended 50 years in prison and required that he be treated for his depression and borderline personality disorder. Final sentencing will be held at 1 p.m. March 22. The accident killed three of the senior citizens --- Mary Reynolds, of Stanford; her husband, Raymond Reynolds, and Robert Miller, of Ohio--- and severely injured another, Mary Reynolds' sister, Elizabeth Thompson, of Ohio.

An anti-bullying youths empowerment group is starting in Danville, and its founder hopes to eventually carry the message of accepting others worldwide. Danville resident Elizabeth O'Carroll, the mother of two grown children, is so concerned about the escalating problem of kids bullying others in school that she recently started The 11th Sign. The non-profit organization is designed to have two drama troupes, one comprised of college students and the other with high school students.

I couldn't shake the somberness that clung to me like lint on a suit of clothes. The grief I felt in the eyes of the family followed me out the door of the funeral home and into my car. A wintry mix of snow and rain added to the dreariness of the moment, and the rhythmic swish and swash of my windshield wipers sounded like a death knell, projecting with every beat of its dirge the photographs I had just seen of the deceased in happy times, nagging me...

GRAVEL SWITCH - Kentucky State Police are investigating what is being called a murder-suicide after the bodies on a Boyle County man and woman were found shot to death on the porch of a Casey County residence early Saturday morning. Troopers were dispatched  a “shots fired” call from Casey County dispatch about 11:45 p.m. Friday. When they arrived, they discovered the bodies of Judith “Robin” Duncil, 52, and George “Buddy” Merrick, 61, on the front porch of a residence on Little South Road near Gravel Switch, Trooper Billy Gregory said.

High school can be a tough place. Just ask Mercer County seniors Corey Brown, Katrina Bryant, Sarah Jones and Cody Pike. “The people we go to school with, they're still harsh,” Bryant said. That harshness can be a contributing factor to youth suicide, a persistent tragedy that is often so difficult to deal with, it is hushed up. This is something that Melody Pike, coordinator of the Youth Services Center at Mercer County Senior High, and other educators around the state have been striving to change.

Bonds between fathers and sons have been forged in the family garage since the advent of the automobile, inheritances earned instead of given. Just like his dad Mark, Shelby Cain had some motor oil coursing through his veins. An avid racer who competed across the region from go carts to midget class cars, Shelby also liked to take things apart and put them back together to make one-of-a-kind creations. "He loved everything about it," said Mark Cain, who lives in Lexington, but has deep local roots.

While prescription drug abuse has contributed to a number of deaths, Jessamine County Coroner Michael Hughes said the county's suicide rates is pretty scary as well. Since 2009, the coroner's office has investigated 16 suicides, Hughes said. “Usually, it's the middle-aged - someone going through a messy divorce, or it's a child-custody thing, or they feel like the family has turned against them,” Hughes said. “Middle age is the most prominent (age) for suicides, but again, we had a 19-year-old boy this year.” Hughes said the suicide rate in Jessamine County is slightly higher than the drug-related death rates.

STANFORD - The May shooting death of Kathy Pemberton Miracle has been ruled a suicide by Lincoln County Coroner Farris Marcum. “There wasn't enough evidence there to rule it a homicide. It was a suicide, cut and dried,” Marcum said Wednesday. Miracle, 52, was found dead by her husband, Ricky Miracle, on May 7 inside their home on Maxwell Street. She died of a single gunshot wound to the chest. A .38-caliber handgun was found near her body, and a single bullet was recovered from the sofa on which she was lying.

The notion of a loved one ending their life at their own hand is one that most of us will never be able to comprehend. However, here in Jessamine County, as well as the rest of the state, and for that matter the country, suicide has become more commonplace than ever before. Researchers have compiled volumes of documentation in attempts to identify not only the underlying compulsion for committing suicide, but how the event is triggered.  Regardless of these studies, we must always face the many questions that arise and the tumult of emotions that erupt within our family and social circle.

STANFORD — The mother of a Lincoln County man who died after hanging himself in the Lincoln County Regional Jail has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Jailer David Gooch. The complaint, filed last week in Lincoln Circuit Court by Tammy Durham, alleges Gooch “failed to exercise reasonable care” in protecting Charles “Lil Chucky” Durham from himself while in custody. Charles Durham died May 6, 2010, in a Lexington hospital after hanging himself in the jail on May 2. Durham was jailed on April 28 on a first-degree robbery charge.

STANFORD — Authorities investigating the weekend death of a Stanford woman are waiting on test results to determine if she was murdered or committed suicide. Lincoln County Coroner Farris Marcum said Tuesday that preliminary autopsy results showed Kathy Miracle died of a single gunshot wound to her chest Saturday in her home on Maxwell Street. A .38-caliber handgun was found near the body and a single bullet was found lodged in the sofa where Miracle was lying, Marcum said. Miracle’s husband, Ricky Miracle, has been read his rights and is considered a suspect in the case, which is being investigated by Stanford police Detective Barry Allen, but has not been charged, Deputy Coroner John Proffitt said.