Woman investigated by FBI after sending 'suicide kit' letter

MILWAUKIE, Ore. – The FBI is investigating a local woman who wrote a letter of support to a California woman who sold a so-called suicide kit to a Eugene man who used it to kill himself.

Law enforcement raided the home of 91-year-old Sharlotte Hydorn's El Cajon, Calif. home last month. On Monday night, Clackamas County Sheriff's deputies visited the Milwaukie home of Sara, who declined to be identified by her last name, looking for something that's not even illegal and after she wrote a letter to Hydorn.

While the state of Washington has outlawed suicide kits, Oregon has yet to do so; however, the state House has voted to make it a felony to sell the mail-order kits in the state. The bill does not conflict with Oregon’s "Death with Dignity Act" which allows physician-assisted suicide in certain circumstances.

The letter that Sara sent Hydorn was not even an e-mail. It was a handwritten letter she mailed.

"They told me they needed to come in and speak with me and look around my house to find a suicide kit I supposedly ordered online on June 10," Sara said of the police visit.
She said she never ordered a kit.

Sara said she felt bad for Hydorn – a retired science teacher, who sold a $60, ready-made "helium hood kit" to the Eugene man – because she was receiving death threats and thought it was "ridiculous to respond that way to an elderly person. … So I sent her a note letting her know there are people that support the right to die with dignity.

"It’s scary on a lot of levels," Sara said. "It's scary the local police come and shake me down because they get this tip, supposedly anonymous, tip. It's scary that the FBI is reporting me and making up allegations against me because I wrote a woman a letter. … It just seems like I’m being strong-armed and haven't done anything."

Clackamas County says the deputies who came to her house acted on a law-enforcement tip out of concern for the welfare of Sara and her son. They also said she consented to the search inside her home.

"They interrogated my neighbors," Sara said. "They called my landlord and asked him to let them into my home when I was not here. It’s just bull."

And even if she did buy a so-called suicide kit: "It's not against the law. I could have 50 of them in my garage, and they can't arrest me for it," she said. "It’s not illegal to order them. It's not illegal to have them, and it's not illegal for me to kill myself if I wanted to."

The FBI would only say it can't discuss cases like this. And Clackamas County says deputies got conflicting information at first and it was within their power to do the search.