When someone well-known on the fetish scene dies young, people who knew them or knew of them are naturally curious about the circumstances.

There are all kinds of reasons why the facts around a death don’t always get published immediately, and unfortunately in such cases, speculation, gossip and unfounded rumours often rush in to fill the vacuum.

This happened to some extent after friends on the fetish scene lost contact in mid-May with Amy Crowder, the talented corsetière behind Kansas City-based Wasp Creations.

Rumours began to circulate that something had happened to the 39-year-old. People who were in regular contact with her had not heard from her since May 11 or 12.

Then, around ten days later, web postings began to appear from people who obviously believed that she’d died, but had no more information to offer.

These as yet unconfirmed rumours prompted a number of people who knew about her private BDSM lifestyle (she was known to be extremely submissive) to become fearful that if she were indeed dead, it might well be because something terrible had befallen her in the course of some kinky situation she’d become involved in.

The rumours of her death became more insistent as America’s end-of-May Memorial Day Weekend — and with it Amy’s scheduled appearance at Fetish Factory’s 15th Anniversary celebrations in Florida — drew closer.

Finally, in the last week of May, confirmation that Amy had indeed passed away came in the form of a death notice posted by her family in the Kansas City section of the Legacy.com website.

Unfortunately, the date of death quoted in the obituary — May 22 — only served to increase speculation. What, people wondered, had happened in the ten days after her last known contact with anyone around May 12?

We will have to await the official examiner’s report, due at the end of July, to know the full story. But it does seem from preliminary information released that there was nothing “dark” or BDSM-related about Amy’s sad demise.

Information that has now come to us from “Phelion”, who had known Amy for 13 years, is that, pending formal toxicology results, the apparent cause of death was a heart attack or other coronary incident.

Amy was apparently found on May 21 by a friend who was also her cat-sitter. “The case officer at the Kansas City PD, Detective Thomas in Homicide, said there were no signs of foul play,” says Phelion.

It seems, sadly, that there was a family history of heart trouble. “According to her mother,” says our correspondent, “Amy's father died of a heart attack himself at 37.”

Amy’s Wasp Creations website is still live — it can’t be taken down yet because the family has to be able to show the hosting company a death certificate, which they can't get until the examiner's report comes back. “So it's been very frustrating for the family,” adds Phelion.

Although Amy’s family apparently knew nothing about her private life, they clearly realise that she was loved, respected and trusted by many people on the fetish scene all around the world. And touchingly, her mother is determined to do the right thing by those people.

“The biggest thing Amy's mom wants me to get the word out about,” says Phelion, “is that Amy's client list is safely locked away and will never be sold, but will be destroyed once her estate is fully settled.”

Amy’s Wasp Creations website is still live – it can’t be taken down until the family can show the hosting company a death certificate