06:04 PM CDT on Thursday, July 6, 2006

By Wendell Edwards / 11 News

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As Ken Lay's relatives make plans for a tribute to his life, some skeptics are raising suspicion about his death.

AP

Despite the medical examiner's ruling that severe coronary disease killed Lay, bloggers and talk show callers believe he's still alive.

Others suggest he took his own life to avoid prison.

Longtime radio host Sam Malone has heard it all. And he got an earful about Ken Lay.

"Until we see a body at a funeral in a casket, we don't have any valid proof whether he's dead or alive," insisted one caller.

They began calling minutes after Lay's death was announced.

"And I thought people would really reflect on this death, Enron, but no," said Malone. "There are so many people who have this little switch in the back of their head: conspiracy -- he's not dead."

On Thursday, the calls kept coming.

"I think he's alive and laughing all the way to Argentina -- some country where he can't be exported," said another caller.

Malone believes there's a segment of the population that will always have their doubts about Lay's sudden massive heart attack.

"If they can't figure out with 100-percent certainty who killed President Kennedy, there will always be a question mark about the death of Ken Lay," said Malone.

Along with condolences, conspiracy theorists were burning up the keyboards on the KHOU.com message board.

One wrote: "Show me a body and DNA proof and I might begin to buy it. Otherwise, he's chillin' on a beach somewhere with Elvis and Tupac."

"It's very mean. It's sort of cruel," said Steven Devadanam, who tracks and writes about blogs for the Houston Press.

He said bloggers have devoted several Web sites to questioning Ken Lay's death.

"I think bloggers want to see, unfortunately, they want to see a picture of Ken Lay's corpse and they want it certified and then they'll be happy and they will believe it," he said.

But until, the Ken Lay controversy will live on -- even after death.

Footnote: A spokesman for the Lay family tells us details are still being finalized for a memorial service next week in Houston.