Death Wish

It's unclear where Jana was when she changed her will, or who was present.

Jana's family sought to unearth a connection between Final Exit Network and Pastor Maraj in recent months, to no avail.

Last February, Phoenix oncologist Michael Roberts wrote in his notes that Jana Van Voorhis "wished to be moved to hospice. She believes she has holes in her belly, feet, and liver. She believes she is having pesticide toxemia . . . Clearly, at this point, I don't think that any further testing would benefit her unless there are more symptoms or more objective evidence."

Jana never did have cancer, her sister Viki says, noting that she collected medical records from Jana's doctors after the suicide.

Dr. Roberts also wrote that Jana had called his office about 10 times weekly for the previous 11 1/2 years.

In March, he "fired" his longtime patient in a letter that concluded, "I will no longer be your doctor."

By then, Jana already had contacted Final Exit Network for help in committing suicide.

The network's Web site spells out what is supposed to happen after a potential "member" contacts it.

"A First Responder in your area will call you, talk you through our procedures, and make arrangements for an Exit Guide to contact you and arrange a personal interview in your home if that is appropriate.

"You will need to supply a personal statement and a medical diagnosis for our Evaluation Committee, and you must attest that all relevant family members or caregivers will not interfere with your wishes.

"Your individual needs and timetable will be evaluated and coordinated with your Exit Guide, who will provide you with information on all alternatives for care at the end of life, including all legal methods of self-deliverance that will produce a peaceful, quick, certain, and painless death."

During searches of the homes of the two exit guides present during Jana's suicide, detectives found copies of the "intake interview" with Jana, dated February 17, and a Final Exit form letter, which Jana initialed on March 24 and then again on the day she died.

That letter includes this statement: "Physicians have determined that I have a terminal or hopeless illness, with no expectation of improvement . . . My present condition is intolerable. I therefore seek information to help me explore my options for a hastened death."

Serious mental illness may last a lifetime, and, in that way, could be termed a "hopeless" condition.

But being profoundly depressed seems different from hopelessness endured by someone that, say, can't move a muscle because of a neurodegenerative disease.

Jana also inscribed her initials next to the following sentence in Final Exit's form letter: "I have considered the feelings of my family, friends and other loved ones, and have decided to choose the time and manner of my death. No one has tried to make this choice. It is entirely my own."

In the weeks before her suicide, Jana apparently spoke by phone to Final Exit's medical evaluation committee.

The word "apparently" is necessary, because Final Exit Network president Ted Goodwin says his attorneys advised him not to discuss the Van Voorhis case for this story.

"But I will say one thing of my own volition," the amiable Goodwin tells New Times. "I've spoken with both parties [Hale-Rowe and Langsner] at great length, and the allegations made under the provisions of the search warrant(s) are in no way substantiated by the facts in the case. I am confident of that."

Generalities aside, however, Final Exit's process of verifying the accuracy of Jana's true medical condition seems to have been as lacking as its decision not to contact her family.

Exit guide Frank Langsner continued to communicate with Jana in March and into early April.

Later, when Langsner finally admitted his key role in Jana's suicide to Phoenix police, he said he'd reminded Jana about another network "rule."

That, according to Final Exit's Web site, is "You must be able to procure the items required for your use [in a suicide]."

Jana had enough pills at her townhouse to bring down a small team of horses, so she really didn't have to procure anything.

But Final Exit Network prefers self-asphyxiation by inhaling helium through a hose, with an oxygen-eliminating hood snugly over one's head.

(An inert gas, helium doesn't show up in a body's bloodstream, which is one reason why right-to-die organizations often trumpet its use in assisted suicides. In the 1980s, a Hemlock Society publication noted, "The gas disperses easily and is difficult to trace in a corpse.")