After a severely rough week for the Duane "Dog" Chapman and the rest of the his extended family, matriarch Beth Chapman has died following a recurring battle with throat cancer. She was 51 years old.
Duane Chapman revealed the news himself on social media this morning with a loving message.
Beth Chapman died in the same Honolulu hospital where she had recently been placed in a medically induced coma not long after experiencing another medical scare. Though Duane Chapman, family members and friends were all hopeful and optimistic that she would pull through these latest setbacks, her chances of recovery were slim, she sadly succumbed to her ailments on Wednesday, June 26.
In September 2017, Beth Chapman was initially diagnosed with Stage II throat cancer, though things were looking up again as soon as November of that year. She'd had the cancerous tumor removed from her throat, and seemingly stayed cancer-free for a full year after that. The ordeal was documented for the A&E documentary special Dog and Beth: Fight of Their Lives.
However, it was in November 2018 that she reportedly had to get rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery due to blockage in her throat causing troubles for her breathing. Soon after, she was re-diagnosed with Stage IV throat cancer.
Though Beth Chapman had reportedly entered into chemotherapy treatment at the beginning of 2019, Duane Chapman claimed in April that the treatments weren't helping and that she was foregoing chemo in the future. She returned to the hospital in early April after having serious breathing problems, and it was discovered that fluids had been building in her lungs.
Prior to that, Duane Chapman shared a story that revealed Beth Chapman had an idea that she might be dying, and how it was a concept that just didn't occur to her whenever they were out working together. In Chapman's words:
The other day she said to me, ‘I’m not sure, but I could be dying,’ She said, ‘I want you to look where I’m at. I’m on the road, chasing bad guys with my family, Duane.’ You know, when we’re out there chasing bad guys we don’t think about it. It’s not even real.
Born Alice Elizabeth Smith, Beth Chapman first met Duane "Dog" Chapman in 1986 when she was 19 years old, when she was stopped for unwittingly shoplifting with an unregistered gun on her person. Dog was the person who bailed her out after he was called by her father.
The two went into business together in 1995, with Beth handling the bonds office side while also heading out with Chapman to track down the sought-out criminals. As seen by millions of people, Beth was a big part of A&E's Dog the Bounty Hunter series through its eight-season run.
Two years after the TV show started, and just one day after Duane Chapman's daughter Barbara Katie was killed in a car accident, the two married in 2006. After Dog the Bounty Hunter ended at A&E in 2012, Duane and Beth shifted to CMT for the spinoff series Dog and Beth: On the Hunt, which lasted three years and ended in 2015.
Work was being done for a new TV show, titled Dog's Most Wanted, which is set to air on WGN America in 2020. Beth Chapman was involved in the production of that show, though it's unknown at this time how that will all be handled for the series' release.
We at CinemaBlend send our thoughts and condolences to the family and friends of Beth Chapman during this sad time.
