Hunter found dead after falling out of a tree stand, South Carolina coroner says
A 66-year-old man died after he apparently plunged from a tree stand in South Carolina, officials say.
Douglas Parton was hunting in the Upstate while perched about 32 feet from the ground on Monday, according to a news release from the Spartanburg County Coroner’s Office.
“It appears he fell from the tree stand,” the news release said.
A relative searching for Parton found him dead in the nearby woods about eight miles northeast of Spartanburg, Coroner Rusty Clevenger told McClatchy news group Tuesday in an email.
The family member had received a message from Parton just after 6 p.m. and started looking for him when he didn’t come back from the hunting trip, Spartanburg County officials say.
He was pronounced dead at 10 p.m., according to the coroner’s office.
Officials say they conducted an autopsy Tuesday morning and “discovered the decedent received head injuries consistent with his fall from the tree stand.”
The case was ruled an accident, according to an updated news release.
Tree stands are used to give hunters a better vantage point, and falls from them have a “high rate of neurological injury,” according to a research study published in 2014 on the National Institutes of Health website.
In South Carolina, the state’s Department of Natural Resources says hunters get seriously hurt each year after falling from tree stands.
“These accidents can be prevented through the proper use of a tree stand safety harness,” wildlife experts say.
This story was originally published October 29, 2019 at 3:42 PM with the headline "Hunter found dead after falling out of a tree stand, South Carolina coroner says."
