Marine vet’s falling death puzzles police

[unhappycamper]

Marine vet’s falling death puzzles police
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Oct 3, 2007 7:33:11 EDT

LA CROSSE, Wis. — No one may ever know whether a drunken ex-Marine who fell to his death from a Mississippi River bridge was trying to kill himself or simply stumbled over a railing, Police Chief Ed Kondracki said Tuesday.

Christopher Melancon, 24, an Iraq war veteran, fell from the Cass Street Bridge into a dark, algae-coated Mississippi slough early Sunday morning. His blood alcohol level was reported as 0.24 percent, three times the legal limit in Wisconsin.

A witness at the foot of the bridge saw Melancon fall but didn’t know whether he climbed over the bridge’s 42-inch-high pedestrian railing or somehow tripped over it, Kondracki said.

The chief said it’s hard to imagine someone stumbling over the railing, but investigators don’t know where Melancon was going or what he was doing along the railing.

“We’ll never know what was in Christopher’s mind at the time he went over the railing,” Kondracki said.

Anthony Triplett, Melancon’s roommate and himself a Marine, said he grew up with Melancon in Milwaukee.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/10/ap_bridgefall_071003/



uhc comment: Rest in peace, Christopher.

[Arkansas Granny]

1. I don't know how tall this guy was, but isn't it a little difficult to

stumble over something almost 4 feet tall? This sounds like a deliberate act, not an accident. I would want to know if he climbed over on his own accord or had some help.

[unhappycamper]

2. It wouldn't surprise me at all if this was self inflicted. n/t