Alice in Chains: The Untold Story

With no regular source of income, Saunders discovered eBay and quickly realized its potential application. He told Dan Gallagher that Eddie Vedder had given him a box of rare Pearl Jam 45s and started selling them on eBay. “He’d be like, ‘You know, I figured out you can’t put on ten of those at once, or the value goes way down. You can only put on one or two at once, and then people will pay fifteen dollars or whatever for a forty-five,’” Gallagher recalled. “He would spend his time doing that, marketing the forty-fives and making enough to buy his food and stuff.”

When he was short on cash, he would stop by Evan Sheeley’s store, Bass Northwest, to pawn gear or instruments. Each time he did this, he raised a few hundred dollars. Sheeley said, “I don’t think he really cared about having some big mansion and a fancy car and all the stuff like that. He just wanted to be recognized as a good bass player in a good band. He wasn’t getting the recognition. It was the other guys who were getting the recognition. He really was the odd guy out in that band. So that’s basically—whenever he and I would hook up and we would talk at my store, that’s more or less what we’d talk about.”

In late December 1998 or early January 1999, Johnny Bacolas went over to Saunders’s home. He remembers Saunders being stressed over his financial situation because the second Mad Season album wasn’t happening. That was the last time he saw him.2

On the morning of January 15, 1999, Saunders drove De Baere to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Though she had originally planned to stay for six months, De Baere decided to go back to Belgium to finish her dissertation. The relationship was ambiguous, but De Baere said they had not broken up. “I don’t know if he believed me, but the plan was definitely like, ‘See you soon,’” De Baere said.

De Baere noticed he had instruments in the trunk, not knowing of his plans for later. She had an eerie feeling at the airport. “I knew when we said good-bye … When I got on the plane, I almost got out because—I don’t know—something got me very worried the way he walked. I will always have that vision in my head of him going down the automatic stairs, our last kind of look.” That was the last time she saw him.

Later that day, Saunders went to Bass Northwest to pawn a black Fender jazz bass guitar, which he told Evan Sheeley had been given to him by his parents when he was a teenager. “He said that he had to sell it because he needed money for rent, or else he was more or less going to be evicted, which is kind of the same story he gave me every time,” Sheeley said. He wrote Saunders a check for $800 to $850. The bank that the store kept its account with was a block away. Saunders walked over and cashed the check. This was the last time Sheeley saw him.

Barrett Martin, who lived close to Saunders, would often have him over for breakfast. That evening, Martin called him to suggest that they meet for breakfast or lunch the next day at a restaurant instead of at his house. Saunders agreed. Martin said he was the last person to speak with him.3

According to the medical examiner’s report, Saunders spent “the majority of his day with his friend, Mr. Christopher Williams.” They had been drinking beers, and at approximately 9:00 P.M. they shot up. Williams described Saunders to authorities as being very high, and Williams noted that Saunders had “quit using drugs for a long time until this incident.” Saunders became “lethargic and unresponsive” before collapsing on the kitchen floor. Williams tried reviving him by pouring cold water and placing ice cubes on him before calling 911. Medics arrived on the scene and declared him dead on arrival. He was forty-four years old.4

Dan Gallagher had been worried about Saunders because he had been very withdrawn and because he was taking De Baere to the airport that day. At the same time, he had a four-month-old daughter who had a severe cold or flu. “I wanted to go check on him that night, but I literally was [with] two sick kids, and I was trying to keep the baby alive, basically.” He kept walking to the back door to check on Saunders’s house and noticed flashing lights from police cars and an ambulance. He walked over. The EMTs eventually filed out, unsuccessful in their efforts. Knowing they were there for Saunders, Gallagher asked if he had made it. They told him he hadn’t. Gallagher was on the porch when Williams came out. “Here he was on the porch and he looked pretty upset, kind of strung out as you might expect. I actually told the cops, ‘You should arrest that guy. He’s the one that brought the shit over there.’

“Then we went back and forth. I was yelling at him, and he was yelling at me. A lot of fuck-yous and accusations.”

Police asked Gallagher to identify the body. “He was laying on his back on the kitchen floor with a mask from a respirator … still on. He was gone at that point. I looked at him and it was Baker but it wasn’t Baker. He was gone.”