Man Dies Trying to Disprove CSI 0
It astonishes me that I forgot to blog this when it happened. This is an article that I noticed in a newspaper at my parents' house while I was back home in August. I swear that is true.
Police: Provo man died trying to disprove 'CSI'
Gun accident prompted by TV show
Rapid City Journal, 4 August 2007
A Provo man fatally shot himself with a shotgun while trying to disprove a popular TV crime show, according to authorities.
Earl F. Ellwanger Jr., 55, accidentally shot himself in the stomach about 7 p.m. Tuesday and died of his wounds Thursday at Rapid City Regional Hospital.
Ellwanger saw a television episode of "CSI" in which investigators were trying to show that a woman couldn't have shot herself in the stomach, according to Fall River County Sheriff Jeff Tarrell.
"He decided to show that the program was incorrect and didn't realize the shotgun was loaded," Tarrell said.
Family members were present at Ellwanger's home in Provo when the accident occurred, the sheriff said.
Ellwanger was taken by ambulance to Minnekahta Junction where the ambulance was met by a Black Hills Life Flight aircraft, which flew him to Regional Hospital.
The Fall River County Sheriff's Office and Edgemont ambulance service responded.
* This is, in fact, the Provo in South Dakota; a tiny town in the middle of nowhere out west of Hot Springs. Utah is off the hook on this one.