Wife, doctor helped start investigation

John Celmer was making what his doctor considered “remarkable progress” last spring after two surgeries to reconstruct his jaw.

The 58-year-old Cumming man faced hip replacement surgery for arthritis, but he appeared to have won a battle against head and neck cancer.

Then, he was found dead.

“His doctor was shocked,” said Forsyth County Coroner Lauren McDonald III. “He said he shouldn’t have died.”

McDonald said an autopsy confirmed that Celmer, who smoke and drank, was cancer-free at death; the man had died from asphyxia suffocation resulting from the inhalation of helium. The death was ruled a homicide.

At first, when authorities were called to Celmer’s townhouse June 20, 2008, the man appeared to have passed away peacefully in his sleep.

“Everything looked so natural,” the coroner said. “You had a patient who had cancer. You had medications.”

But some things raised suspicions —- his doctor’s surprise, for one. And the discovery in Celmer’s home of “Final Exit,” a book on assisted suicide.

Celmer’s wife, Susan —- they were married, but lived in different units in the same townhouse complex —- helped authorities pull together other pieces of his death and what authorities say could be the state’s first assisted suicide prosecution. Four people have been arrested and charged with assisting with Celmer’s suicide, tampering with evidence and violating the state RICO act.

Cleaning up Celmer’s townhouse after his death, Susan Celmer uncovered information about the Georgia-based Final Exit Network. The organization’s Web site espouses “our right to die a peaceful and painless death at the time and place of our choosing,” and calls taking one’s own life “self deliverance.”

She also found notes of conversations with at least one network member about “coordinating my demise,” and a receipt for two tanks of helium her husband bought a few weeks before his death, according to an affidavit filed by authorities Thursday in several North Georgia counties.

Celmer’s mother, Betty, contends group members shouldn’t face charges if they helped her son, who was looking at several more rounds of surgery.

“If they helped John to die, that is what he wanted,” she told The Associated Press. “I would never find them guilty for helping him.”

But Susan Celmer issued a statement late Thursday saying she and her family “are gratified that the GBI and other law enforcement agencies have pursued this matter vigorously and that their investigation has led to the arrests.”

Celmer had worked as a contractor in the dry cleaning industry. The affidavit noted that he was concerned about his appearance after surgeries to repair his deteriorated jaw and to graft over a hole in his lower jaw.

Neighbor John Laymac said Celmer “was fine and up and walking around” early on June 20. He was taken aback Wednesday to learn Celmer may have died in an assisted suicide. “Now it makes sense,” he said.

Laymac had known Celmer since 2005, when his friend moved into the townhouse complex. They hit it off in part because they were both from upstate New York.

Celmer would come by and throw darts in Laymac’s garage, and occasionally would eat supper at Laymac’s home. Or they would sit outside in the cool of an evening and talk while Celmer would nurse a Milwaukee’s Best Lite and have an occasional Pall Mall cigarette.

One favorite topic was Celmer’s vintage 1965 motorcycle.

“He was always working on that motorcycle,” Laymac said. “He used to race motorcycles. That was his project. He was waiting for parts when he died.”

—- Staff writer Doug Nurse contributed to this article.