Boulders crush hiker near Index

A 21-year-old  Shoreline man died when a boulder fell on him while he was hiking near Heybrook Lookout last Friday, May 19.

Snohomish County Search and Rescue teams were called out to a rock field around 1:30 p.m. last Friday, according to a Snohomish County Sheriff's Office news release. The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the victim as being Andrew E. Shehata on Tuesday, May 23, and lists the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head.

Shehata had been hiking with three other people, including his girlfriend, when he and another hiker went off the trail in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, southeast of Index.

“It was not a rescue, it ended up being a recovery,” said sheriff's office spokesperson Shari Ireton. “He was pronounced dead at the scene.”

Shehata’s companions told sheriff's deputies he and the other hiker that had gone off trail ended up walking “past a large rock balance on another rock.” The first hiker was able to make the traverse successfully, but Shehata was pinned under a boulder.

Fire District 26 Assistant Chief Ernie Walters said his agency retrieved the Shehata’s body. He said it is not known what exactly caused the rocks to move, but the boulders on that hillside are usually loose.

“He fell through into a void space, and the rock shifted and actually pinned him between two boulders,” Walters said.

Emergency responders from fire districts 26, 28 and 7, including some crews from Lake Stevens and Everett, used ropes and other technical equipment to secure boulders in the area, and then removed the ones covering Shehata, Walters said. His body was then transported via an off-road vehicle to a parking lot off the Index-Galena Road, about 1.2 miles away from the hillside.

Sheriff's deputy Ron Doersch wrote the incident report. He had gone to the hillside, but fire crews told him the area was unsafe. He waited in the parking lot for the rescue teams to bring the man's body down.

“I could see red fluid issuing from his mouth and nose and he was obviously lifeless,” according to the incident report.

Walters said agencies that participated in the recovery “advise people to hike in groups and stay on the path, and not try to get off the actual trail.” He said to make sure to have a partner that can call for help in case of an emergency.