Autopsy shows shooter died of self-inflicted gunshot to head

OAKESDALE — An autopsy determined that resident Chester David Hathaway’s death was the result of suicide.

Whitman County Coroner Annie Pillers released the autopsy findings in Hathaway’s death Thursday, Jan. 7.

Hathaway, 82, died Dec. 26 at the home he shared with his wife after an attempted murder-suicide, according to initial reports. Hathaway shot his wife, Irene Louise Hathaway, 83, and then himself at about 1:04 p.m.

“The cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” the coroner wrote in her findings. “The manner of death was suicided.

His intended victim and wife, Irene Hathaway, s...