News brief: Hunter died instantly from fall into ravine

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The Onalaska man found dead after he failed to return from a one-day hunting trip south of Randle died from an apparent fall of a significant distance, according to authorities.

David Sherwood, 56, was the subject of a search in the Ryan Lake area that ended on Tuesday; his body was discovered down a steep ravine. He had set out alone the Friday before hunting elk.

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said an autopsy revealed Sherwood died of blunt force trauma, and the pathologist concluded his death was instantaneous, the coroner’s office said today.

Both the coroner and a spokesperson for the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office said they did not know what Sherwood fell onto.

McLeod said Sherwood died on Friday, Nov. 11, the day he went hunting in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Some 70 family and friends were among those who searched for Sherwood, along with Skamania County authorities and at least one veteran search and rescue member of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
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This entry was posted on Monday, November 21st, 2011 at 4:16 pm and is filed under News briefs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “News brief: Hunter died instantly from fall into ravine”

  1. adminsharyn says:
    Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 6:03 pm

    Search and Rescue: thank you for sharing that.

    just to let you know, i asked the skamania county sheriff’s office twice, and the lewis county sheriff’s office twice over those days, what SAR groups were helping, and specifically if any from lewis county … they didn’t know the answer.

    so, i’m glad to have finally got this info out there. –sharyn d.

  2. Search & Rescue says:
    Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 5:03 pm

    Just so your readers know. There were 7 members of the Lewis County ATV Search and Rescue on site from 6pm to midnight on 11-12-2011, using our ATV’s to do road searches. We were the 1st team to respond to the call. We had 2 on Sunday and 3 on Monday. No appreciation was given to the our team. No one has ever mentioned this, I guess we’re used to it.