ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, April 16, 1997              TAG: 9704160067
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-3  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.H.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

MICHAEL DORRIS KILLED HIMSELF LAST WEEK WRITER FACED CHILD-SEX ALLEGATIONS

The day he learned of the accusations, he called a friend and said, `My life is over.'

Award-winning author Michael Dorris was facing a child sex-abuse investigation in Minneapolis when he committed suicide last week.

Minneapolis police would not give details of the allegations, and Jennifer Fling, spokeswoman for the Hennepin County attorney's office, said the police file would become public after the case is closed, probably within a week. Closing a case is routine when a suspect dies.

The 52-year-old writer was found dead Friday in a Concord motel room, where he had checked in under an assumed name. Police said he took over-the-counter sleeping pills, drank vodka and suffocated himself with a plastic bag, leaving a note that said he would be ``peaceful at last.''

Police said Dorris had made a suicide attempt at his home in Cornish on March 29.

A close friend said the allegations were false and said Dorris committed suicide because he hoped to head off a ``feeding frenzy'' by law enforcement officials and the media.

The day he learned of the accusations, ``He called me and said, `My life is over,''' Douglas Foster, former editor of Mother Jones magazine, said in a telephone interview from Berkeley, Calif.

``He didn't know how to fight (the allegations) without making things worse,'' Foster said. ``And he had a realistic idea that no matter how baseless the allegations were, they were going to have a strong negative effect on his family and his work,'' Foster said.

Dorris' attorney, Douglas A. Kelley, cautioned that Dorris had not been charged with a crime.

Dorris' estranged wife, novelist and poet Louise Erdrich, would not discuss the child-sex allegations. The couple had been separated for about a year.

``Michael did a huge amount of good in the world. He also suffered from severe depressions,'' she told the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. ``I hope in his way he helps people understand that it's important to get help and have hope.''

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