Man dies in lightning strike

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, September 14, 2006

A Stanwood builder died in a Colorado wilderness when lightning struck the tree where he was resting, authorities said Thursday.

Robert Heichel, 40, was killed late last week, but his body was found Wednesday after an intense search that included dozens of people and two helicopters, according to authorities.

His body was located about a mile from the campsite where he was staying during a hunting vacation.

“It’s a terrible tragedy,” said Andrew Heichel, his cousin who is a Stanwood firefighter. “My family was totally broken apart with it.”

Heichel’s official cause of death is multiple-systems trauma due to a lightning strike, according to Montrose County Coroner Mark Young.

Heichel was a husband and the father of two school-age children.

An avid hunter, he loved traveling out-of-state in search of elk and other game. He had hunted on the rugged, wooded property in western Colorado before and was likely returning for muzzle-loading season, Montrose County Undersheriff Dick Deines said.

Powder and ramrod muzzle-loading guns were found at Heichel’s campsite, along with his wallet and cell phone.

The only item found near his body was a video camera he was probably using to film elk, the undersheriff said.

Heichel arrived in Colorado Wednesday and had last spoken with his wife Thursday morning.

The search for him began Sunday morning, after the woman who owns the property where Heichel was hunting notified police that he was missing. She noticed Heichel hadn’t moved a note she had left at his campsite Friday. Plus there were no tracks around the camp to indicate that he had been back since heavy storms late Thursday.

The search began with 12 to 15 people and a helicopter. By Wednesday, it had more than tripled in size. Heichel’s father, uncle and brother flew out to join the search.

The area has several rock outcroppings and canyons that Heichel could have fallen into. Bears, mountain lions and rattlesnakes also roam the land, Deines said.

“We hadn’t really got to the point where we were calling it a recovery mission rather than a rescue mission,” he said. “Everyone still had high hopes that he would be found alive and either injured or lost or something like that.”

A tracking dog found Heichel’s body at 2:30 p.m. under a tree that was scorched by lightning.

“He was a really, really good, honest person,” Andrew Heichel said. “He was really hardworking and motivated – just a very friendly and good-hearted person.”

Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.