The La Plata County Coroner’s Office has identified a man who died by suicide last weekend as Jeffrey Deitch of Durango.
Deitch, 60, was found dead by hikers about 10 a.m. Sunday on a trail between Haviland and Electra lakes. He died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, said La Plata County Coroner Jann Smith.
A pistol was found in the area; no foul play is suspected, she said.
Deitch, a former attorney, was the playwright and director of “Lies, Shame, and Self-Medication: A Durango Love Story,” a collection of seven one-act plays about moral ambiguity and how people deal with it. The plays were presented in May 2014 at the Henry Strater Theatre.
“This play is my reflection of not only life in Durango but on American life,” he said in a 2014 interview uploaded on Vimeo. “… This is my attempt to make people laugh and cry and think and reflect.”
An autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday.