SLEEPY EYE, Minn. (AP) - A Minnesota man whose son once fled the state to avoid chemotherapy has died.

A private funeral is set for Friday for Anthony Hauser. Family friend Dan Zwakman says Hauser died last Thursday of cardiac arrest at a Minnesota hospital. He was 56.

Hauser, of Sleepy Eye, told reporters at his farm last year that he had a rare and aggressive form of leukemia. He said he was treating the disease with dietary therapies.

In 2009, Hauser's wife, Colleen, fled to California with their son, Daniel, after a judge ordered the boy to undergo chemotherapy for Hodgkin's lymphoma. Daniel and his mother returned, and he underwent conventional treatment. Zwakman says Daniel, now 15, remains in remission.