I am both saddened and horrified by suicides like Michael Dorris'.
If Michael Dorris did sexually abuse his children, then all I can say is he killed himself too late. Anyone even tempted to sexually abuse a child should either get help immediately or kill themselves before touching a child.
In this case, his accuser seems to have been his estranged wife, the writer Louise Erdich. Now, I'm a little suspicious when sexual abuse allegations come in the midst of custody battles. Sometimes, sexual abuse is involved. However, sometimes, the allegations are purely in the mind of the estranged spouse, and are used as a weapon against the other. Anyone who concocts these stories to get back at a spouse makes proving the real stories of sexual abuse so much harder.
So I'm of two minds in this case. I'm not sure if I should be furious with Dorris or furious with Erdich. As awful as sexual abuse is, the emotional warfare that an estranged spouse can launch using the children as pawns ranks a close second.
Laurie Mann, wishing we had a society where none of this stuff ever happened....