Man Dies In Forest Road Wreck Body Found Saturday Morning By Driver Who Stopped After Spotting Crash Site

A longtime Coeur d’Alene resident plummeted more than 400 feet to his death this weekend after his truck careened off a winding forest road.

The body of Jerry L. Graves, 49, was discovered at 9 a.m. Saturday about 30 feet from the wreckage of his Nissan pickup.

The truck was near the bottom of a steep, brush and tree-tangled ravine south of Lake Pend Oreille.

Unsure how many people were in the truck, rescue workers rappelled down the ravine and spent hours searching the treacherous hillside for other victims.

Kootenai County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dan Soumas said he was concerned that someone may have been injured and crawled off somewhere.

Rescue workers found only Graves, who appeared to have died sometime the night before.

Idaho State Police officials say alcohol was found in the pickup. Tests will determine whether Graves was driving under the influence.

Graves was raised in Coeur d’Alene where he graduated from high school in the early 1960s. He worked for the U.S. Forest Service at its tree farm in Coeur d’Alene, said his father, Kenneth Graves Sr.

“Jerry spends a lot of times in the hills - he loves the woods,” Kenneth Graves said. His son enjoyed motorcycle riding, skiing and baseball. “He just about did it all.”

Jerry Graves told his father on Friday that he was going to pick up medicine.

“But then he never came back,” Kenneth Graves said. “He didn’t come home last night but I figured, well, he does that sometimes.”

Larry Fields of Hayden Lake was on his way to Lakeview Saturday morning. The small town sits on the southern end of Lake Pend Oreille.

Forest Service Road 278 winds back and forth through the mountains on its way to the town. The trees along the narrow, rock-covered path occasionally open up to reveal steep slopes cut clear of trees.

“Always when I drive in I look in the clearcuts for elk,” Fields said. Coming into an opening, he saw the pickup on the opposite hillside where it had come to rest, backed up against a dead tree. “Because it was red it really caught my eye.”

Fields picked his way down through the stumps and bushes until he found Graves’ body.

“I was kind of expecting it but I was kind of hoping to find someone who just needed help,” Fields said. He then made his way to a phone and called police.

Kenneth Graves said it appears his son was on his way to visit a friend who lives in Lakeview.

It appears Graves drove around a corner and then crossed to the opposite side of the road and onto its shoulder, where the pickup’s tires began slipping over the embankment, Soumas said.

The pickup then flipped end over end, ripping off its camper shell. The tumbling truck left red paint marks on stumps and debris strewn along the hillside, said Deputy Ken Dodge, who investigated the wreckage.

Seven beer containers were found in a cooler and one open beer was found under the truck seat, authorities said.

Emergency workers became concerned that someone else may have been in the pickup when they found a lone shoe laying on the hillside. Graves was still wearing both of his shoes.

Athol and Kootenai County firefighters took turns combing the hillside but found no one else.

Dodge said it looked like Graves was not wearing his seat belt.

“I’ll miss him a lot,” Kenneth Graves said.

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