Dr. Lynn Barton McDonald, a longtime Bend physician whose body was pulled from the Deschutes River on Monday, might have been an indirect casualty of the Bend real estate boom and bust.
Ethan Lindsey reported on OPB news yesterday that the Deschutes County Sheriff's Department is investigating the possibility that McDonald's death was a suicide.
"McDonald was known to be in financial trouble," Lindsey reported. "He owned several unsold properties in Bend's wilting housing market and he was close to losing a mobile home park he owned.
"Deschutes County Sheriff Larry Blanton says foul play is not suspected, but investigators' work continues."
"We may never know what happened up there that night and what happened for him to be in the water, to succumb to the situation in the water there," Blanton said. "We may never know what exactly happened there."
In addition to the mobile home park on Parrell Road, which was placed in receivership in May, McDonald had invested in The Shire, another residential development in the same area with a Lord of the Rings theme.
McDonald, 58, had been an emergency room physician at St. Charles Medical Center for almost 30 years. He went missing last weekend, and divers found his body in the Deschutes below Benham Falls Monday evening. Memorial services are planned for Friday and Sunday. For information call St. Charles at 541-382-4321.
