Family members charged with manslaughter in Colorado "assisted suicide" death.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty

Jennifer Kovaleski reported for Denver 7 (ABC) News that Mildred “Milsy” Roller (91) died on February 18, 2024 by asphyxiation and not by assisted suicide. Assisted suicide is legal in the state of Colorado.

If you have suicidal thoughts, do not read this article, but seek help through a suicide help-line.

Kovaleski reported that:

Officers with the Louisville Police Department said they found Milsy inside her room at The Lodge at Balfour, a Boulder County assisted living facility, with a bag over her head connected by a tube to a nitrogen gas bottle. Beside her was a suicide note with the date changed from Feb. 5 to Feb. 18, 2024.

Family members have been charged with manslaughter. Kovaleski states:

An indictment details text messages, purchases, and planning that prosecutors said crossed the line from the right to die into felony manslaughter. According to the indictment, texts included statements like, "We need to talk about whether mom needs a will," and "She needs to write a suicide note and she really couldn’t today."

Court records say Milsy's daughter, Kim Roller, bought a nitrogen tank three days before Milsy died. Kim's brother-in-law David Norton ordered a pressure flow regulator from Amazon and helped Milsy install it, according to the indictment. Prosecutors say there had been a failed suicide attempt earlier that month.

According to the indictment Milsy had no terminal diagnosis and her family stood to inherit more than $650,000.

Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougher said:

"This is definitely about fighting for justice. And she doesn't have a voice in this process,"

Final Exit Network (FEN) involvement.

Kovaleski reported that Milsy's daughter Kim attended a FEN meeting where she learned how to kill her mother.

Police say Kim attended a Final Exit Network (FEN) workshop weeks before Milsy's death at The Lodge at Balfour, the same facility where Milsy lived. Texts show Kim brought in gear to make sure they had the right equipment, stating, "We've got the right equipment. I brought it in a (sic) showed it to one of the guides."

FEN is a group that provides instructions to enable people to die by suicide, but these instructions also enable people to kill, which is what happened to Milsy.

Kovaleski reported that the police have instructed the FEN to change its Colorado workshops, making sure participants understand the law and cutting out step-by-step instructions.

FEN is a type of "criminal" killing organization, as it provides information and advise to people to enable them to kill.

FEN has been associated with multiple concerning deaths. 

• In February 2026 a Texas woman was arrested for assisting her husband's suicide (Read).

• In July 2024, a retired doctor and assisted suicide activist, who worked with FEN, was charged with manslaughter in New York State (Read).

• In June 2021, FEN launched a court case to try to overturn the Minnesota assisted suicide law. The court case was an attempt to overturn the 2015 conviction in the death of Doreen in 2007. 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. (Read).

FEN continues their work under the guise of free speech and they avoid being prosecuted based on the fact that dead people don't talk.

Milsy Roller was not terminally ill. Milsy was allegedly killed by her daughter and son-in-law with instructions and coaching from the FEN.  

Since assisted suicide is legal in Colorado, If Milsy was terminally ill she may have been pressured to death by "legal" assisted suicide. So what's the difference.

Being killed by assisted suicide is legal. They cannot prove coercion in assisted suicide deaths. Being killed by manslaughter, a type of murder, is not legal with the same outcome.

It's time that we simply stop allowing people to kill people.