News brief: Name released of elk hunter killed by falling tree top

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The hunter who was killed over the weekend when part of a tree fell onto his tent outside Packwood is identified as Joseph R. Gardner, 69, of Kirkland.

An autopsy found Gardner died from multiple internal injuries, stemming from blunt force trauma to his chest and head, according to Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office responded about 3 p.m. on Saturday to the hunting camp at the Cortright Creek Trailhead where a 20-foot length of tree had dropped approximately 100 feet onto the man.

KING5.com talked to Gardner’s brother who said the two went hunting in that same spot nearly every year since they were boys growing up in Randle but he’d never seen the wind like it was that day.

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