'Pirate Master' Contestant Dies of Apparent Suicide

Zap2It.com | July 31, 2007

Cheryl Kosewicz, 'Pirate Master' contestant

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Cheryl Kosewicz was depressed after her boyfriend's recent suicide

Mark Burnett's disappointing reality show "Pirate Master" has suffered another blow.

On the heels of the news of having its remaining five episodes yanked from CBS to go to streaming purgatory, it appears that one of its former contestants, Cheryl Kosewicz, was found dead in her home from an apparent suicide on Friday, July 27, reports Reno's KOLO-TV.

Kosewicz, a 35-year-old deputy district attorney, had spent more than six years prosecuting sexual abuse cases in Las Vegas.

Her death is still under investigation, but follows less than two months after the suicide of her boyfriend, Ryan O'Neil, who died on June 12. His death had hit the reality show contestant hard.

"Truthfully, I've lost the strong Cheryl and I'm just floating around lost," Kosewicz wrote in a June 28 comment posted on the MySpace webpage of fellow 'Pirate Master' contestant Nessa Nemir. "And this frik'n show doesn't help because it was such a contention between Ryan and I and plus its [sic] not getting good reviews."

Kosewicz was actually able to use her attorney skills to advantage the first time she was up for elimination on the show. Unfortunately, this didn't work the second time, and she became the fourth person to walk the plank.

Kosewicz is survived by her parents, brother, grandmother and additional extended family.