Texas woman arrested for assisting her ex-husband's suicide.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Caitlin McCormack reported for the New York Post on February 18 that Sarah Regmund was arrested in the suicide death of her ex-husband Joseph Cheffo. The report indicated that Regmund assisted the suicide of Cheffo by following and participating in how-to instructions from the Final Exit Network.

The Final Exit Network (FEN) provides information, advice and sometimes trained people to assist a suicide.

According to McCormack:

Joseph Cheffo was found dead in his home in Odessa, Texas on Feb. 13. Even though assisted suicide is illegal in the Lone Star State, his ex-wife and primary caretaker, Sarah Regmund, allegedly helped suffocate him with how-to instructions from the Final Exit Network, the Odessa American reported.

I will not describe the assisted suicide death, but McCormack reported:

During an interview with police, Regmund explained that she had been in touch with the Final Exit Network, whose founder authored the book found near Cheffo’s bed. She claimed that the nonprofit’s representatives showed Cheffo how to kill himself the same day he died, according to the Odessa American.

McCormack stated that it was not clear whether or not FEN members were present at the death. Regmund admitted to following the FEN instructions, to setting up the suicide, and waiting two hours before reporting the death.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition will follow this case.

FEN have been involved in many known assisted suicide deaths.

In 2015, the Final Exit Network or FEN was found guilty, by a jury, of assisted suicide in the suicide of Doreen Dunn (57) in 2007, who was depressed but not terminally ill. The group was sentenced on August 24, 2015. FEN appealed to the Minnesota Court of Appeals, the Minnesota Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court to no avail. They argued the Minnesota assisted suicide statute violated the free speech protections of the U.S. Constitution. 

After exhausting their appeals of the 2015 jury verdict, FEN filed a federal lawsuit in the Minnesota District Court in 2018 seeking to have the Minnesota assisted suicide law ruled unconstitutional on free speech grounds. The District Court dismissed the case in 2019 because it was simply a repeat of the state appellate case they had lost. Once a decision is final, you don’t get “overs” under the legal doctrine of collateral estoppel.

In May 2021 FEN filed a federal lawsuit with the Minnesota District Court seeking to invalidate the assisted suicide statute on free speech grounds. The legal arguments were the same as those in the 2018 suit that was dismissed, but the facts are different. The case appears to have died in 2023.

John Celmer

FEN has been prosecuted in several assisted suicide deaths. In Georgia, FEN assisted the suicide of John Celmer, who was depressed after recovering from cancer. Susan Celmer, John's widow, testified against the Final Exit Network.

FEN assists the suicide of people at the most vulnerable time of their life. Larry Egbert, the former medical director for the Final Exit Network, lost his medical license in Maryland for assisting suicides.