Three people die in hunting-related accidents in Hubbard, Cass counties

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Nov. 9, 1999

By Devlyn Brooks

Three people died Sunday and Monday in hunting-related accidents in Cass and Hubbard counties, according to the sheriffs in both counties.

The first, a 14-year-old Pillager boy died Sunday from injuries sustained while falling out of a tree. The second, a 62-year-old Ramsey, Minn., man, died of an apparent heart attack and a third man died in Hubbard County from a heart attack.

Cass County Sheriff Jim Dowson said the Cass County Sheriff's Department was also called in to search for a missing hunter Sunday night.

In a news release, Cass County Chief Deputy Randy Fisher stated that 14-year-old Johnathan P. Hix was hunting alone in the Pillager area when he apparently fell out of a tree. He died from the resulting injuries.

Hix was found by a family member shortly after dark Sunday.

Fisher said that an autopsy has been scheduled to determine the official cause of death.

Dowson said in an interview that 62-year-old William Jutila was found dead from an apparent heart attack in his pickup while hunting.

Dowson said the man's son found him about 9 a.m. Monday on a forestry road located 1.5 miles from Cass County Road 91 in the Sucker Bay area. Sucker Bay is between Cass Lake and Bena.

The sheriff's department also helped located a lost hunter Monday morning in the Sucker Bay area, Dowson said.

A hunting party reported a man missing about 10 or 11 p.m. Sunday to the sheriff's department, which called in a Minnesota State Patrol helicopter to help conduct the search.

The helicopter spotted the missing man about 5:30 a.m. Monday. He said he got "turned around in the woods," but was not injured, according to Dowson.

The helicopter, which is based in Cloquet, coincidentally was searching for a missing person in Itasca State Park in Clearwater County when it was called in for the Cass County search.

In neighboring Hubbard County, Sheriff Gary Mills said things have been quiet during the opening weekend of hunting.

The Hubbard County Sheriff's Department answered two calls about hunters suffering heart attacks, with a 55-year-old man dying in the area east of the village of Hubbard.

Mills added that a bullet pierced a house about three miles southeast of Park Rapids in Henrietta Township. He said the bullet entered the building's bathroom but the only person in the house at the time was not injured. The sheriff's department did not determine who fired the shot.

"This is one of the quietest years we've had," Mills said.