By the Nisqually Valley News staff
Five days after a fatal “freak accident” took the life of a 31-year-old man at McKenna Park, the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified the deceased victim as Puyallup resident Nathaniel Heatherly.
Heatherly was killed on Saturday, Oct. 25, at McKenna Park in Pierce County when weather at the “Haunted Witches Market,” hosted by Centaur Sisters of the Moon Events, took a nasty turn with high gusts of wind. With the high winds, a cottonwood tree fell down, killing Heatherly and crushing several vendor tents and displays. Multiple 911 calls began rolling into dispatchers regarding the incident shortly after 1 p.m. on the date of the incident.
Shortly after the incident, Pierce County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Carly Cappetto, who serves as public information officer for the agency, told the Nisqually Valley News that a 31-year-old man was killed after being struck by a branch from the fallen tree. He was later identified as Heatherly.
“It was just an awful event — totally unexpected,” Cappetto told the Nisqually Valley News on Saturday, Oct. 25. “It was totally a freak accident, something I don’t think anyone would have thought of. It’s not uncommon to hear about trees falling on cars or homes.”
As of Thursday, Oct. 30, Heatherly’s death was ruled an accident, and the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled his cause of death as “multiple blunt force injuries.” Three other attendees of the event were transported to local medical facilities, and an estimated 40 to 80 people attended the event at McKenna Park.
“Occasionally, maybe once a year, we’ll have an accident where somebody has been hit, struck by a tree, dies — very freak accident type of thing,” Cappetto said last month. “This time of year is a good time to reassess trees on people’s properties and around their homes to ensure we don’t have anything that could cause an accident like this. We live in a beautiful state. There’s lots of trees around here. Unfortunately, it comes with these types of accidents.”
McKenna Park is located at 35621 State Route 507 South, and is owned and operated by Centralia City Light.
