Skier found beaten and apparently left for dead
NEAR WASHOUGHAL, Wash. - A cross-country skier who was beaten and apparently left for dead has three college students to thank for saving his life.
Robert Tracey, 52, told investigators that two men attacked him Monday near Dougan Falls, along the Washougal River. He said one even came back and choked him. The men then left Tracey in the snow and may have taken his SUV, which is now nowhere to be found.
A trio of college students who set out on a hike that day happened upon Tracey and could not believe what they saw.
"We could hear someone yelling and I thought they were saying hello or something but then we walked back a little bit to see what was going on," said Nicole Stewart.
"Off to the side, we heard somebody yelling 'help!' and so we looked down and we saw him standing in this little ditch sort of thing," said Tony Knight. "His face was really messed up and he had cuts and there was a big chunk missing in the back of his head."
"We pretty much just tried to find the nearest help that we could possibly find," said Marissa Romine. "I knew that there was houses but it was still like a long ways away."
Knight, Stewart and Romine were able to find a nearby house and a woman living there had a radio so they could call for help.
Neighbor C.J. Henson heard that call and raced over on his ATV. He said based on what he saw, Tracey's chances of survival would have been slim to none if he hadn't been found.
"He'd have been a dead man," Henson said. "It was snowing by the time the paramedics got here. So temperature wise, it would have been a factor on his survival."
Another neighbor, Jon Brobst, helped care for Tracey until medics arrived. "He was a bloody mess," he said. "It was a sight I can't get out of my mind."
"Not in the history that I've been here have I ever seen anything like this up here," said Dave Brown, Skamania County Sheriff.
Police are searching for Tracey's SUV and ask anyone who sees it to call 911. The SUV is a black 1998 Ford Explorer with Washington license plate number 455-YHY.
Police are also trying to come up with a sketch of the suspects but since Tracey is still hospitalized and was beaten so badly, that may be difficult.
