There was an apparently well-deserved front-page article in the RGJ this morning eulogizing Denise Phoenix, a Bureau of Indian Affairs criminal investigator.

I should have known who she was. I remember when her children and one of her brothers were killed in a crash on Pyramid Highway in 2000, but I guess I didn't learn much about their mother/sister at the time.

Today's article by Kristin Larsen tells us why her death is a loss to a lot of people. Larsen quotes Phoenix's stepmother as saying, "She devoted her life to children after the death of her children and her brother" and gives examples. Denise Phoenix sounds like a really good person.

She died, at age 42, four months after going into a home in Montana to investigate child abuse and being exposed to methamphetamine gases that damaged her lungs.

She had a law enforcement career in Northern Nevada before moving to Montana. Since the deaths of her children, she had hosted and supplied some of the prizes for the annual Shasta and Justin Youth Memorial Basketball Tournament in Nixon.

I hope she is enjoying a joyful reunion with Shasta, Justin and her brother on the other side.

UPDATE 2/23/08: The story about the funeral in this morning's paper gives slightly different information about the cause of Phoenix's death.