Rose Red actor David Dukes and real-life horror
Max Devore
Medical examiner says office doesn't deserve 'heartless' label
By HECTOR CASTRO
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Her husband's sudden death 1,200 miles from home was shock enough for Carol
Muske-Dukes, but the horror became greater, she said, when his body fell
under the authority of the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office.
"Nobody understands this, that you can lose all control to ... what is
essentially the equivalent of the DMV, to a bureaucracy that is essentially
heartless," said Muske-Dukes, a Los Angeles poet and writer whose husband,
actor David Dukes, died in Spanaway last fall.
Dukes was in the Puget Sound area working on "Stephen King's Rose Red," a
television miniseries scheduled to air in February.
Just wrapping up a national tour of interviews and readings to promote her
latest novel, "Life After Death," Muske-Dukes is in a rare position for
someone taking on a government agency. She has used her tour across the
states to voice her criticisms on radio interviews and in newspaper articles
from Seattle to New York.
On a Seattle radio program, she referred to the agency as "scurrilous,"
"disgusting" and "callous." In the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press, she
refers to her husband's treatment after death as a kidnapping.
Her goal, Muske-Dukes said, is to make others learn that when they die, they
become subject to their local coroner or medical examiner.
"I would just do anything to raise awareness about this and prevent anyone
else from going through this," she said.
Dr. John Howard, Pierce County's medical examiner, doesn't agree with
Muske-Dukes' criticisms and said they are undeserved.
Dukes "was afforded very good death investigation and treated with dignity
at all times, and we handled that case in a professional manner," Howard
said. "There's nothing we would have done differently now than then."
The 55-year-old Dukes, a veteran actor in films, television and the stage,
had most recently appeared regularly as Mr. McPhee in the drama "Dawson's
Creek." He suffered a fatal heart attack Oct. 9 while playing tennis on a
public court in Spanaway.
Although Muske-Dukes had completed her novel before her husband died, his
death was ironically similar to that of a character in the book.
The novel, published by Random House, tells the story of Boyd Schaeffer, who
must come to terms with the death of her husband, Russell, after he suffers
a heart attack on a tennis court. The book also examines the funeral
industry through the eyes of a kindhearted funeral director who befriends
Boyd and her young daughter.
Full story: http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/33808_dead03.shtml
--
Bev Vincent
Even a blind man could see what a great time we're all having.
-- Stephen King/Peter Straub "Black House"