Linda McCartney, the wife of the Beatles legend Paul McCartney, did not die in California, as the family's announcement of her death stated, the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department said yesterday. The statement, which supported reports that the cancer-stricken McCartney actually died in Arizona, quoted her doctor as stating "unequivocally and factually" that Linda McCartney (56) "did not die in the county of Santa Barbara, or the state of California".
The statement did not specify where she died, but the family hinted strongly on Wednesday that it was at the family's ranch outside Tucson, Arizona.
The sheriff's statement said Dr Lawrence Norton of New York's Sloane-Kettering Cancer Centre had contacted the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Coroner Bureau by telephone to say he was the attending physician at the time of death last Friday.
"Based on Dr Norton's statement to us, the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office believes that we do not have any jurisdiction in the death of Linda McCartney," the statement said.
The department in Santa Barbara, 100 miles north of Los Angeles, made an investigation when it found no record of a death certificate even though the family originally said she had died there.
In Tuscon, it was reported yesterday that a death certificate was issued for Linda McCartney in Arizona and signed by a cancer specialist. The disclosure was by a television station in Tucson, close to where Sir Paul McCartney's family has a 1,000-acre desert hideaway.
Meanwhile a spokesman for the McCartney family said yesterday that a story claiming she had died at a ranch in Santa Barbara on Friday was made up to allow the family the time and privacy to grieve.
The clarification came from the family spokesman, Mr Geoff Baker, after police in California said they were launching an investigation.
Unnamed sources quoted by the Tucson television station KVOATV said that a cancer specialist at the University of Arizona had signed Linda's death certificate.
The station also said that Mr Bruce Parks, medical examiner in Pima County, Arizona, authorised her cremation.
Sir Paul flew back to Britain to spread his late wife's ashes at the couple's Sussex farm at the weekend. The family strenuously denied speculation in a California newspaper that his wife's death, on Friday, may have been "assisted". Sir Paul's spokesman dismissed the suggestion as "nonsense".
Mr Baker, who is also a close family friend, said: "For whatever reason, there have been unfounded reports that Linda had been assisted in her death. This is not true." Efforts to counter speculation of an assisted suicide were backed by a statement from Dr Larry Norton, Linda's cancer specialist in New York, saying she died from natural causes.
In a statement released to PA News, the rock star said: "Our family has received many beautiful messages of sympathy from ordinary people around the world.
"Reading their messages, we know that ordinary people would want our request for simple privacy to be respected.
"This is a personal request from me."