DEAD & HARRIED

Burner says that at the time he was considering buying the house, Jason Deitz told him he had burned only papers in the fireplace.

Jay Kristofferson, who worked for the cleaning service hired by Jason Deitz to clean up the smoke damage, says he gave Hutchins photos this summer that reveal weblike residual material that resulted from the fire. Such residual indicates that synthetics were burned, Kristofferson says, adding that such residuals could come from burned prescription vials. If it was a bathrobe, it was synthetic, he says.

Burner disputes the report of the Maricopa County medical examiner, in which the death is determined to be accidental, the result of a drug overdose and hyperglycemia (because of her diabetes). Burner has tracked down an expert who backs him.

Dr. John Palmer (no relation to the detective), acting head of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Arizona, says there is a strong possibility that Laine Deitz died of an intentional drug overdose, not hyperglycemia combined with an accidental overdose. "There is nothing in the Medical Examiner's report nor the Police Department report that would enable one to make a determination as to whether the death was accidental or otherwise, i.e., suicide, homicide or unknown," Palmer wrote in a letter dated January 1993.

According to his staff, the chief medical examiner, Dr. Tom Keene, isn't budging. He met with staffers from the County Attorney's Office this summer to review the medical examiner's 1981 autopsy.

"Dr. Keene is of the opinion that there is nothing to dispute," says his medical secretary, Jerry Green. @rule:

@body:Although Josh Burner moved out of the house on Vaughn Street in 1985, he says the ghost of Laine Deitz zaps him once or twice a week. But it's been months since they spoke.

In May, though, Laine thanked Burner for his help and told him--through a song playing on the radio--that the two of them will go down in history.

She told him that Jason Deitz would be led away in handcuffs. Coincidentally, in June, Jason Deitz began serving a two-year sentence for burglary in San Quentin State Prison in California. He was convicted of stealing hundreds of model aircraft valued at approximately $75,000 from one of his more recent employers, McDonnell-Douglas in Long Beach. Jason Deitz refused New Times' request for an interview.

Laine Deitz declined to comment, as well.