Massies Mill
Crabtree Falls
Nelson County, Virginia
Updated 8:35 AM EDT 8.24.10
Nelson County Sheriff David Brooks confirms to NCL that the identity of the man killed today at Crabtree Falls is Charles Shillito, age 61, of Richmond, Virginia. His 62nd birthday would have been tomorrow on August 24th. Sheriff Brooks said Mr. Shillito had recently been living in the Albermarle County area. “He was discovered by a hiker around 11:30 Monday morning,” Sheriif Brooks told NCL Monday evening. As of Tuesday morning, Sheriff Brooks said his agency’s investigation revealed that suicide may have been the likely cause of the death.
“It took everything that a 200 foot rope would do so that’s roughly 100 feet by the time you run it through the pulleys and so forth,” added Wintergreen Fire & Rescue Chief, Curtis Sheets. WFD along with Montebello Fire & Rescue performed the rescue & recovery. Montebello was first on the scene joined by WFD around 1:45 PM. Chief Sheets said from the time they arrived it took about 3 hours to make the recovery by performing a vertical lift straight up to an area where Mr. Shillito could be walked out for transport.
Authorities found Shillito’s vehicle parked at the bottom of the falls. The sheriff said it appears he hiked up to the top.
Original Post Below
from 8.23.10
Within the past hour rescue crews made it to the body of what’s thought to be a man who died after falling to his death Monday afternoon at Crabtree Falls in far Southern Nelson County, Virginia near Massies Mill.
Around 1PM rescue crews began trying to get the person from a rock area where he fell and apparently died. Wintergreen Rescue along with crews from the southern part of the county worked for at least two hours to reach the body.
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Nelson County Sheriff, David Brooks confirmed to NCL shortly into the rescue that it was a recovery operation and the person had died.
More details as we have them.
