Manslaughter charge filed

Cops: Town man helped 61-year-old terminally ill relative end life

WESTBROOK — A 65year-old man is facing a manslaughter charge for his alleged role in the assisted suicide of his terminally ill family member, according to State Police.

Kevin G. Conners, of Break Neck Road, was arrested Thursday and charged with second-degree manslaughter (helping a person commit suicide) in connection with the Sept. 6, incident involving a 61-yearold victim.

State police did not name the victim. However, an obituary posted on www.dignitymemorial.com says that Lori Hedges Conners died on Sept. 6, 2018, in Westbrook, leaving four children and her husband, Kevin. Westbrook property records found on the Vision Appraisal website show that Kevin and Lori H. Conners co-own a home at 78 Break Neck Road in Westbrook.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Thursday that Lori Hedges Conners died of a gunshot wound to the head, with the cause as homicide.

The record of Lori Hedges Conners’ death on file with the Westbrook Town Clerk shows she died at 78 Break Neck Hill Road.

Members of the state police and Central District Major Crime Squad at Troop F in Westbrook investigated the case. They obtained a warrant for Conners’ arrest, which was served Thursday morning after he turned himself in, according to the police report.

Conners, who is being held in lieu of $50,000 bond, is due to be arraigned in Superior Court at Middletown Friday.

Police said they expect no additional charges to be filed.

Connecticut has debated the issue of assisted suicide for at least a decade, but no bill has never even made it out of the Public Health Committee, CT News Junkie reported. Dozens of people testified in support of the bill during this year’s legislative session that sought to allow a physician to prescribe medication at the request of a mentally competent patient with six months to live.

A 2015 Quinnipiac University poll found Connecticut voters support legislation that would allow a doctor to prescribe lethal drugs to help terminally ill patients end their own lives by a 63-31 percent margin. Among those over the age of 55, the approval rating was 59 percent.

Reported cases of assisted suicide are rare.

In 1994, for instance, a Westport man charged with manslaughter for helping his dying father commit suicide was placed on two years’ probation after being described by the judge as a loving son who was carrying out his father’s wishes, the Associated Press reported at the time.

William F. Meyer III, 65, had admitted helping his father, William Meyer Jr., 88, to end his life on July 30, 1991, at his home in West Hartford. Meyer said he helped place a plastic bag over his father’s head and held his father’s hands down as the older man began struggling to remove the bag. He was arrested in 1994 after he admitted his role in the suicide in a magazine interview. In granting probation, then-Superior Court Judge Thomas Miano said Meyer was an outstanding citizen and there was no reason to believe he would help anyone else commit suicide.

The judge said at that time that he had deep reservations about granting probation. But he said it was clear Meyer was a loving son who only helped his father end his life after the elder Meyer’s first suicide attempt failed, leaving the old man in deep despair. Miano also said he was swayed by a letter the elder Meyer had written to friends before the suicide. In the letter, the terminally ill Meyer said that after five cancer operations: “I happily decided that it was more kind and thoughtful of me to terminate my life before I reach a decadent condition of helplessness.”

Meyer was charged with second-degree manslaughter, which carried a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. He was granted accelerated rehabilitation, a special form of probation in which all records of a charge and proceedings normally are erased after completion of probation. The judge said he agreed with prosecutor James Thomas that Meyer had violated the law. But he said he was convinced that Meyer had acted with “good cause,” a finding necessary to grant accelerated rehabilitation.

Conners