Linda McCartney, wife of Beatles legend Paul McCartney, did not die in California, as the family's announcement of her death stated, the Santa Barbara Sheriff's office said Thursday. In Tucson, Ariz., television and newspaper reports said McCartney had died on a ranch outside Tucson which she and her husband bought nearly 20 years ago, and that some of her ashes were scattered there. Tucson television station KVOA and the Arizona Daily Star newspaper said that Pima County Medical Examiner Dr. Bruce Parks authorized Linda McCartney's cremation, and the newspaper said her death certificate was signed by a doctor at the Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson. A spokeswoman in the Medical Examiner's office and another at the cancer center refused to confirm or deny the reports, citing the fact that death certificates are not public record in Arizona. It was announced last Sunday that Linda McCartney had died the previous Friday of complications of breast cancer while vacationing in Santa Barbara, but no death certificate was filed in Santa Barbara County, which would have been required by law had she died there.
Death certificates are a matter of public record in California.
The Arizona Star, quoting unnamed sources, said half of Linda McCartney's ashes were scattered over the family's sprawling ranch outside Tucson, which the McCartneys bought in 1979. British newspapers had reported that the ashes were also scattered over the McCartneys' farm in southern England. The mystery surrounding McCartney's death was compounded by confusing statements from McCartney's spokesman, Geoff Baker, and denials that it was an assisted suicide. Baker hinted strongly in a statement issued Wednesday that McCartney did not die in Santa Barbara. So in an effort to allow the family time to get back to England in peace and in private, it was stated that she had died in Santa Barbara,'' he said.