SAN ANTONIO – Michael Gorhum had spent 25 years on the force, had taken an oath to protect and serve and had steadily moved himself up the ranks of the San Antonio Police Department, and it is that job that his widow blames for driving him to suicide.
"Mike took his life because of the pressures he was in, doing the job he loved," said Darlene Gorhum, Mike Gorhum’s widow.
Darlene Gorhum believes that along with the pressure, the final straw that led to her husband’s suicide was a lie, and that is why she’s trying to clear her husband’s name.
The Ashley Madison website played a part in tarnishing Capt. Michael Gorhum's reputation.
"There's never been any proof of that at all," Darlene Gorhum said.
Darlene Gorhum still wears her husband’s badge, convinced he was slandered before and after he died by suicide.
"I understand the hard place that he was in. I still wish it wouldn't have happened, but I know how career-driven he was. And I know how important his work was to him, and being in that position he felt like he didn't have a way out," Darlene Gorhum said.
As the head of the San Antonio Police Department’s Internal Affairs Office, Darlene said her husband was feeling pressure from his superiors — one of which he was investigating. She said the night before he took his life, he was convinced the cheating site was one of the ways he would be brought down. After the very public leak of Ashley Madison clients in 2015, the Police Department began an investigation.
"He shared with me that it might hit the media that he would come out as someone who had visited the Ashley Madison site. He assured me he didn't have an account there. He never did anything on the site," Darlene Gorhum said.
The next day Capt. Michael Gorhum’s computers were taken.
“’They took my computer. They just came in and took my computer. This is how they're going to bring me down,’ were his words," Darlene Gorhum said.
It was the last time she would talk to her husband. Minutes later, he was found across the street from the school where she worked in La Vernia with a gunshot to the head.
"He truly believed it was the end of his career, damaging to his character," Darlene Gorhum said.
After Mike Gorhum’s death it was reported that his city email was on the client list, even though it wasn’t. But still to this day, if you Google search his name, articles linking his death to Ashley Madison aren’t hard to find.
Through an open records request, KSAT requested the results of the city's investigation, and they show no one was disciplined. The San Antonio Police Department declined to do an interview on the Gorhum investigation.
Meanwhile, a widow and her family continue to miss the man caught up in the Ashley Madison mess. To this day, Darlene Gorhum does not Google search her husband’s name.
"I know I can't change what is on the Google search engines. It will forever be there, but the people who know him and love him and care for him know the real story," Darlene Gorhum said.