True Sad Stories

life is short

Friday, March 8, my husband and I were arriving home from dinner around 6:45 PM when I spotted a large red truck with bright red lights. We live on a hillside so I always take notice of things that don't appear right. At the bottom of our driveway is a pullout area and further down across the street is a large water tank. Up the driveway is a lower lot and then finally the top of the hill is our home. I was going to check out this truck when we got to the house but I was distracted by sirens. I looked out the window upstairs, overlooking the valley, and saw nothing. I turned away, but again I heard sirens, only this time much louder - still nothing. I walked into our study and saw a firetruck and two ambulances and a bunch of cars by the pullout area. I flew down the stairs yelling at my husband that they were at our house. I still had my leather coat on as I ran to the lower lot. It was getting darker but lights shown on the pullout area. There I saw a white car with the driver door open as well as the backseat door behind the drivers side. A backpack was on the backseat. By the bumper I saw a body. All the first responders at that time were behind the firetruck, silent, overlooking the scene. By now Ron is by my side and I whisper, "There is a body down there." He tells me we have had several calls asking if we are ok and that three shots had been heard. By now police were arriving. One of the officers met the man from the red truck, who was still parked by the water tank. As they were talking they were walking toward the pullout, but still on the street. Apparently, the young man was driving by and thought someone needed help. As he approached he noticed the body and backed off. He turned all his lights on his truck and called 911. At some point I called our neighbors. They were not home.I saw a flashlight in our backyard. It was the police officer who I had seen earlier talking with the young man with the truck. The officer didn't know where our driveway was so he followed the path from our neighbors. He asked us what we knew, saw and our names, etc. I asked if he was Wenatchee PD and he said yes. I informed him we live in the county. He didn't believe me so decided he better check on it because I was so persistent. They called in Chelan County Sheriff officers to take over. My husband brought me my ski parka as I was freezing and shaking by now. My friend told me it was shock. I was surprised that I didn't freak out at the scene. We didn't know if it was a suicide or a homicide. Since we are suicide survivors I was surprised at how calm I was. In the meantime, I felt like I was watching NCIS.WPD had taken photos and placed markers at various places. CCSO arrived and everyone else left the scene. Crime tape was across the road and down passed the pullout area. Our neighbors called saying they couldn't get home. I told them to go around the opposite direction. The road block was by their driveway. He ventured down to see what was happening. I finally went inside to watch a video. I actually sat on my feet so I could see what was going on outside as I kept one eye on the movie. At 11:00PM we finally went to bed. CCSO still working . I got up at 4:00AM and everyone was gone. I got up again at 6AM and emailed my CCSO liaison and asked if he were at our place and if he could fill me in as we had heard two different stories. He confirmed it was a 23 year old male from out of the area, suicide. He had texted his dad and left a note. Wow! What is the likelyhood of someone taking their life on someone's property who is a survivor of suicide. IF ONLY we had arrived 5 or 10 minutes later maybe I could have helped him. I feel the pain of his parents and am sorry for what they are going through.