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MEADE TWP. — WOOD TV 8 has identified the man who died in the Manistee National Forest Tuesday morning as Rich DeBoer of Zeeland.
The Grand Rapids television station reported that DeBoer’s family contacted the TV station.
DeBoer’s son found him dead in his van Tuesday morning. A family member told WOOD the two were here to go deer hunting.
Free Soil/Meade Fire Dept. and Life EMS were dispatched to Tyndal Road and Free Soil road around 8:30 a.m. for a man not breathing. CPR was reported as being started. Upon arriving, fire personnel told Mason/Oceana 911 that the man was showing signs of being dead for some time.
The Mason County Sheriff’s Office reported the cause of death appeared to be from asphyxiation. DeBoer, 54, apparently lit a propane heater in his van.
The family member said DeBoer had three children.
“It’s something that’s easy to do. You don’t think about that,” the family member told WOOD. “You get in and get in the van and turn the heater on you don’t think that this heater’s going to eat up all the oxygen in here.”
The incident happened in the Manistee National Forest just north of Free Soil Road on the eastern county line.
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