Columbus man killed in tree cutting accident

BROWN COUNTY, Ind. (WISH) – A Columbus man who had been missing for two weeks was found dead in the Brown County woods on Monday, officials said.

According to 24-Hour News 8’s partners at The Republic, the man was last seen by his family two weeks ago.

Jesse King was cutting wood on a friend’s property in the 700 block of State Road 46 East. Police said the property owner called police around 9:30 p.m. that Saturday to report that King was missing and two others were looking for him.

Deputy Greg Pittman told the paper, “They weren’t too concerned about this individual (because) he’s an adult. But then they got worried after a certain point of time.”

According to King’s stepfather, the last time he’d seen King was on Jan. 9 when he was leaving to cut firewood. The property owner told police that he had noticed a truck on the property for few days, but didn’t think anything of it since his nephew also had permission to go there. He said his nephew also drove a truck.

Police discovered King’s body on Monday morning. Police say that he was cutting down a tree and it fell and pinned him. It wasn’t clear when the tree fell on King.