Lawyer's death remains a mystery

By Bruce Schuknecht, Journal Staff WriterInvestigators on Tuesday were still trying to determine how prominent Auburn lawyer Jack Mitchell died Thursday after an apparent canoeing accident at Combie Lake, Placer County Sheriff?s officials said.Mitchell, 67, of Meadow Vista, regarded as a popular and respected criminal and personal injury lawyer, died sometime Thursday evening, officials said. Sheriff?s search teams recovered his body from the lake minutes after midnight.Some five hours earlier at about 7:15 p.m., his wife, Helen Mitchell, reported her husband missing, Sheriff?s Lt. Rich Armstrong said on Tuesday.About three hours into a nighttime probe of the lake, a sheriff?s patrol boat crew spotted the submerged body near the Bear River inlet, Armstrong said.?There was no apparent trauma we could see,? Armstrong said. ?When we found him, his body was right next to his canoe.? The body was clothed, he noted.Investigators anticipate toxicology results, due in two to three weeks, will reveal a cause of death that is still inconclusive after an autopsy, the lieutenant said.?We?re pretty sure what happened,? he said, ?but we can?t say for certain until we get the results.?Mitchell practiced law for more than a quarter century, since graduating from UCLA in 1961, his wife said.He began his career in Ventura, and was a head prosecutor for a year in Oxnard.After a few years of practice he moved with his family to Roseville in 1965, then began a criminal law and personal injury practice in Auburn, she said. He later ran for Placer County district attorney in 1982, she said, and for 15 years he also was a Superior Court judge pro tem.She described her husband as honest and kind, and during the last few years he handled several high-profile murder cases.?My neighbors say there wasn?t anyone who didn?t like him,? Helen Mitchell said. ?He always had a mind for the underdog.?Services for W.J. ?Jack? Mitchell are set for 10 a.m. Friday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Auburn Stake Center, 1255 Bell Road. Price Funeral Chapelin Citrus Heights is handling the arrangements.Burial will be at New Auburn District Cemetery.Mitchell was a Ventura native, and father of Miguel Mitchell, Susie Kerr, Gwen Fisher and Jill Horrocks. Other survivors include grandchildren John-Miguel, Alex, Kevin, Alejandro, Andres, Garrett, Erica, Briana, MacKenzie, Cheyenne, Andrew, Brendan, Cole, Amanda and Sid, as well as a sister, Barbara Grace Peace.