Yellow Springs man pleads guilty to assisted suicide in wife’s death

Thomas Stuart Macaulay was charged in April with two counts of assisted suicide in the death of 75-year-old Ardis Susanne Macaulay. He pleaded guilty Wednesday to one of those counts.

Macaulay is expected to be placed on probation, according to a joint recommendation by both the prosecution and defense. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Nov. 21.

Defense attorney Jon Paul Rion said that the outcome of the court case is expected to have “minimal impact” on his client’s life, adding that Macaulay “has obviously been through a lot already.”

“He had a wonderful, long relationship with his wife, and her condition was such that their decisions were what they were in this matter,” he said. “But he respects the law, and he respects this court, and thankfully, we were able to get a good resolution with the prosecutor in this matter.”

Around 3:20 a.m. March 28, Yellow Springs police responded to Aspen Court after Macaulay reported that his wife died, and that it was a nitrogen-induced suicide. He said she chose to end her life, according to a call log.

Macaulay, a retired Wright State University sculpture professor, told officers he had been with his wife. He said he did not participate in the suicide but that they had been planning it, according to the police report.

Inside the house officers found a suicide-type note on the table next to his wife’s recliner, and instructions on how to die by suicide through nitrogen gas poisoning, the report stated.

Ardis Macaulay retired as an art teacher from Mechanicsburg High School and previously taught art at Bethel and Tecumseh high schools, according to her obituary.

“This couple has been together for many, many, many years,” Rion said. “They were both in education, and both gave a lot to our community. They’re two wonderful people who tried their best in this life.”

State law states that assisted suicide is “providing the physical means by which the other person commits or attempts to commit suicide” or; “participating in a physical act by which the other person commits or attempts to commit suicide.”