Corn Chopper Kills 13-Year-Old Hunter in Michigan

Here’s a grim reminder of why it’s important that someone–anyone–knows where you’re going hunting. And, if you’re hunting a corn field, that the farmer knows you’re there, too.

This week, emergency crews were called to the scene of a tragic, freak accident: A teenage hunter was crushed by a harvester after falling asleep in a field of standing corn. The farm worker didn’t know the hunter was there until after he spotted the boy’s lifeless body. According toDetroit Channel Four News, it happened at about 9 a.m. Sept. 13 in Michigan’s Thumb Region.

“Preliminary investigation indicates that a 13-year-old young man from Elkton had been dropped off earlier to deer hunt in that field and it is believed he may have fallen asleep once there,”Huron Sheriff Kelly Hansonsaid in a press release. “A little while later, a 25-year-old man from Pigeon arrived to finish harvesting the field with a large Krone corn chopper. Unaware anyone was in it, the hunter was accidentally driven over and found by the chopper operator a very short while later.”

Jeffrey Lewis Powell of Elkton, Michigan, was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy is still pending. MeatEater sends our condolences to the family.

Feature image of Krone Big X Harvester.

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