Autopsy shows Castle Rock man's death likely accidental
Friday, August 29, 2008 7:17 PM PDT
By Thacher Schmid
Printable version
E-mail this articleLongtime railroad man Perry Lee, 50, of Castle Rock died late Wednesday or early Thursday after falling down a slight embankment and striking his head on asphalt, the county coroner said.
Cowlitz County Coroner Tim Davidson said an autopsy Thursday night showed no signs of foul play and the determination of death was “blunt force head trauma.”
“It looks like he was walking through the area, fell over the embankment and struck his head on the blacktop parking lot,” Davidson said. “It’s just that queer accident where you hit your head just right.”
Davidson said toxicology tests were pending.
Lee’s body was found in the parking lot of the Castle Rock Baptist Church off Jackson Street by a newspaper delivery boy at about 7:23 Thursday morning, according to Castle Rock officer Branden McNew.
Fire Department personnel pronounced Lee dead at the scene.
Lee had last been seen leaving a local bar at about 11:15 the previous night, McNew said.
While police still are investigating, “all the physical evidence points to an accident” as opposed to a criminal cause, McNew said.
A friend in Lee’s Woodard Avenue neighborhood of Castle Rock said he was “totally taken aback” by the death.
“Perry was a real nice guy,” said Mike Shannon. “Gee, God — I’m going to miss that guy.”
Lee was “upbeat” and “a gentleman” who worked for over three decades in Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s Maintenance of Way department in Longview, company spokesman Gus Melonas said.
“He was extremely devoted to the railroads, he was a personal friend of mine, I began my career with him,” Melonas said. Melonas called Lee “extremely conscientious, certainly a leader in the track department.”
Shannon said Lee was an avid fisherman who loved to head down to the Cowlitz or Columbia or Elochoman rivers, light a fire and throw out a line, and had recently bought a motor home with plans to travel.
Lee is survived by his wife, Kathy, and several children.
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