News Article - 6/17/2006

Investigators Discover Body In Rubble

CORWITH TWP.--Investigators from the Michigan State Police are working to determine the identity and cause of death of the victim of a Thursday night structure fire in a remote area of Corwith Township. The cause of the fire also remains under investigation.

MSP Gaylord post commander Lt. Blake Davis said Friday afternoon attempts were being made to contact the next of kin to help in identifying the victim, whom authorities believe to be a man.

Annette Apperson, a neighbor to the 6420 Whitehouse Trail cabin where the fire and fatality occurred, said Friday morning she assisted a woman who came to her home identifying herself as the fiance of the victim. Apperson said the unidentified woman told her the victim allegedly set the small cabin on fire and then shot himself in front of her. Apperson indicated she had never met the couple, who she said stayed a few times a year at the isolated cabin, located on a two-track trail about a quarter-mile off Whitehouse Trail.

Lt. Davis declined to comment on whether the fire was intentionally started by the victim or how he died. Davis said "all possibilities would be investigated."

A news release from the Gaylord MSP Post indicated the victim had been found inside the structure, which was engulfed in flames when troopers and firefighters arrived on the scene Thursday. Firefighters from the Corwith Township Fire Dept. were unable to save the structure, which burned to the ground. Corwith Township firefighters and Dale Hardy, MSP Fire Investigation Unit officer, were still on the scene investigating the cause of the fire on Friday afternoon.

The MSP news release said troopers were dispatched to 6420 Whitehouse Trail, approximately one-half mile north of Whitmarsh Road and six miles southeast of Vanderbilt, around 11:20 p.m. to investigate a structure fire where possible gunshots had been heard.

Apperson told a reporter Friday morning she had heard two shots prior to the fire and that around 11:10 p.m. the victim's girlfriend knocked at her door asking for help, allegedly telling Apperson, "My fiance shot himself," and "I can't believe he did that."

"I was folding laundry when I heard a truck in the driveway and then she came to the door," said Apperson. "She was very hysterical and kept saying over and over that he shot himself in the head. She also said something about a fire, but I couldn't see anything, and while I was trying to calm her down there were two loud explosions and we could see flames rising above the tops of the trees."

Apperson said her 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, who had called 911 only moments earlier to report the alleged shooting, called back to report the fire.

Troopers reported Friday the sound of gunfire may have been from ammunition set off by the heat of the fire. Apperson said the distraught woman flinched whenever she heard the sound of ammunition exploding.

"We prayed with her while we waited for the police to come, :said Apperson. "I tried to calm her down and gave her a Bible to read and had her take it with her when she was taken to the hospital." She was taken by ambulance to Otsego Memorial Hospital. Without the woman's name, no information was available at press time on her condition.

Apperson said the woman did not appear to be injured and, when asked by troopers if she was hurt, allegedly; had replied, "I hurt in my mind and heart." Apperson said she had been told by the woman the couple were supposed to be married in September.