Man trapped by tree shoots himself, dies
CAMANO ISLAND, Wash. – A Camano Island man injured when a windblown tree crushed his trailer killed himself on Christmas Day as he lay trapped in the wreckage, authorities said Monday.
The tree apparently blew down early Sunday on the fifth-wheel trailer where 52-year-old Richard Payne had been living, Island County sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Smith said in a statement.
Coroner Robert Bishop said the cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
He said the injuries Payne suffered from the tree crashing down were not life-threatening.
It did not appear that Payne had any means of summoning help, Smith’s statement said. There was no phone in the trailer and no nearby neighbors. A visitor found the body Sunday afternoon.
No suicide note was found, Bishop said.
Payne was on disability and had been living in the trailer on family property for about a year, the coroner said.