How terribly sad. Michelle had a good radio show and was very dedicated to the truth. She will certainly be missed.

It’s been such an odd (for lack of a better word) year already. So many losses.

Anytime somebody dies,it’s sad,but when they did at 46,that’s really awful. She did some really solid work with a lot of cold cases, and did very in depth work with the Golden State Killer

Hi-

Yeah. I saw a small article in the NY papers today but did not make the connection.

I was on her call-in show along with Morf a few years ago on the Z case.

She was also instrumental in getting new info out about EAR/ONS, along with the new name for the case
that better captured the broad geographic range of those crimes:

http://www.lamag.com/tag/golden-state-killer/

My sister is her exact age and I definitely consider my sister to be "young." It is sad to see someone dying so suddenly and without warning at only 46.
I didn’t realize that she was married to Mr. Oswalt, whose voice I hear every week on The Goldbergs.

Mike

I forgot we were on her L.A. radio show Mike.

She was doing heavy research on the ONS/GoldenStateKiller case, and was in the process of writing a book about it.
There’s a really good piece written about her by her Friend, and fellow sleuth, Bill Jensen(who has a great site by the way)in which he mentions how Michelle really was pro- ‘crowdsleuthing’ where amateur & armchair Detectives work on cases. They were also developing a team of Retired police officers,writers,etc, to analyze cold & unsolved cases as a group. Here’s a link to Bill’s site-

http://billyjensen.com/news/

As far as Michelle being married to Patton Oswalt, I have known that since the first time Michelle and I started corresponding years ago. At that time, she tried to keep her private life/marriage, just that, private and she asked me not to mention that. It wasn’t until Mr Oswalt started to become more recognizable and well known, that she really couldn’t keep it private. I feel so sorry for her Husband and Daughter. 46 years old is so young. I think Michelle had a lot to still accomplish in the world of True Crime & Unsolved Cases. I hope that her book on the GSK is still published

A lot of crime writing is questionable but Michelle’s own work with cold cases was never once lurid or tawdry. Her interest in true crime always seemed to come from a good place and her writing reflected compassion for victims and their loved ones as well as a simmering zeal for justice, however delayed. The loss of this strong, clear, unassailably decent voice in a genre plagued by self-absorbed hacks and exploitative ghouls hits especially hard.

Has foul play been ruled out?

Apparently there are no obvious signs of foul play. The Hollywood Reporter is saying today that it could be months before the cause of death is known due to the medical examiner’s office being very backed up with cases.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/m … den-887396

This must be devastating for her family who not only lost Michelle suddenly but now must wait to discover why.

Damn, I would think they could hire an outside medical examiner if necessary to come in and clean up some of the cases.

She uncovered some never before released documents in the EAR/ONS case. I wrote to her and she emailed me these documents like the map, General Custer essay and others, and with her permission I uploaded them to sites like WebSleuths, AETV, Unazod and here at ZKS. She passionately cared about cold cases and she brought a lot of needed attention to the EAR/ONS/Golden State Killer case.

I can’t see why this investigation is taking so long.

In a recent post on Facebook, Patton Oswalt wrote about his grief, and also his plans to finish his late wife’s book.

Patton Oswalt
August 1 at 10:36pm ·
Thanks, grief.
Thanks for making depression look like the buzzing little bully it always was. Depression is the tallest kid in the 4th grade, dinging rubber bands off the back of your head and feeling safe on the playground, knowing that no teacher is coming to help you.
But grief? Grief is Jason Statham holding that 4th grade bully’s head in a toilet and then fucking the teacher you’ve got a crush on in front of the class. Grief makes depression cower behind you and apologize for being such a dick.
If you spend 102 days completely focused on ONE thing you can achieve miracles. Make a film, write a novel, get MMA ripped, kick heroin, learn a language, travel around the world. Fall in love with someone. Get ’em to love you back.
But 102 days at the mercy of grief and loss feels like 102 years and you have shit to show for it. You will not be physically healthier. You will not feel "wiser." You will not have "closure." You will not have "perspective" or "resilience" or "a new sense of self." You WILL have solid knowledge of fear, exhaustion and a new appreciation for the randomness and horror of the universe. And you’ll also realize that 102 days is nothing but a warm-up for things to come.
And…
You will have been shown new levels of humanity and grace and intelligence by your family and friends. They will show up for you, physically and emotionally, in ways which make you take careful note, and say to yourself, "Make sure to try to do that for someone else someday." Complete strangers will send you genuinely touching messages on Facebook and Twitter, or will somehow figure out your address to send you letters which you’ll keep and re-read ’cause you can’t believe how helpful they are. And, if you’re a parent? You’ll wish you were your kid’s age, because the way they embrace despair and joy are at a purer level that you’re going to have to reconnect with, to reach backwards through years of calcified cynicism and ironic detachment.
Lose your cool, and you’re saved.
Michelle McNamara got yanked off the planet and out of life 102 days ago. She left behind an amazing unfinished book, about a horrific series of murders that everyone — including the retired homicide detectives she worked with — was sure she’d solve. The Golden State Killer. She gave him that name, in an article for Los Angeles Magazine. She was going to figure out the real name behind it.
She left Alice, her 7 year-old daughter. But not before putting the best parts of her into Alice, like beautiful music burned onto a CD and sent out into the void on a spaceship.
And she left me. 102 days into this.
I was face-down and frozen for weeks. It’s 102 days later and I can confidently say I have reached a point where I’m crawling. Which, objectively, is an improvement. Maybe 102 days later I’ll be walking.
Any spare energy I’ve managed to summon since April 21st I’ve put toward finishing Michelle’s book. With a lot of help from some very amazing people. It will come out. I will let you know. It’s all her. We’re just taking what’s there and letting it tell us how to shape it. It’s amazing.
And I’m going to start telling jokes again soon. And writing. And acting in stuff and making things I like and working with friends on projects and do all the stuff I was always so privileged to get to do before the air caught fire around me and the sun died. It’s all I knew how to do before I met Michelle. I don’t know what else I’m supposed to do now without her.
And not because, "It’s what Michelle would have wanted me to do." For me to even presume to know what Michelle would have wanted me to do is the height of arrogance on my part. That was one of the many reasons I so looked forward to growing old with her. Because she was always surprising me. Because I never knew what she’d think or what direction she’d go.
Okay, I’ll start being funny again soon. What other choice do I have? Reality is in a death spiral and we seem to be living in a cackling, looming nightmare-swamp. We’re all being dragged into a shadow-realm of doom by hateful lunatics who are determined to send our planet careening into oblivion.
Hey, there’s that smile I was missing!

(emphasis mine)

Wow.

So sad, and something I unfortunately relate to all too well right now. And…it’s something most all of us will relate to sooner or later….it’s those "sooners" that really make it so very difficult.

I look forward to reading the finished work. Thank you for sharing this.

Sorry to hear you are also dealing with something similar.