A former cardiologist who had been quietly removed from the Alaska State Medical Board was found dead when the house he lived in caught fire, just days after he was taken into custody on charges of child‑sex‑abuse material and his wife posted a $50,000 bail.
Ryan McDonough, 46, was the only person identified in the blaze at his Wasilla home on December 13. He had been arrested on December 11 on ten counts of possessing child‑sex‑abuse images, and his wife paid the bail the next day. Investigators say the cause of the fire is still under review, and no one else in the house was hurt.
McDonough had been on the medical board for only a month, having been appointed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy in August before stepping down in September and then being officially removed in November. A spokesperson for the governor’s office explained that they had not known about the allegations until the week before his removal.
The case began when Dropbox, the cloud‑storage service, reported suspicious content in McDonough’s account to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on July 31, followed by a second tip on August 10.
Anchorage police then obtained warrants to search his Dropbox, GCI and Google accounts, finding more questionable videos. His computer was seized shortly before he was pulled over. McDonough was scheduled to stand in court on January 31.
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