Mount Rainier park to remain closed as condolences pour in for ranger
By the
CNN Wire Staff
Updated 1:55 AM EST, Tue January 3, 2012
FBI Swat team members recover the body of Benjamin Colton Barnes in Mount Rainier National Park on Monday.
Mount Rainier National Park, Washington (CNN)
Washington's Mount Rainier National Park is expected to remain closed Tuesday as authorities continue to investigate the deaths of a park ranger and the man suspected of killing her.
Authorities found Benjamin Colton Barnes' body Monday, face down in a river in the park. He was the suspect in the New Year's Day shooting death of park ranger Margaret Anderson.While officials have shared little about Barnes' background, or a possible motive, park staffers and residents in Eatonville mourned Anderson's passing.
"Everyone is talking about her," Patty Wrzesien, a waitress at Cruiser's Cafe told
CNN affiliate KING. "She was such a sweet, sweet lady."
Wrzesien told the station that Anderson would bring her daughters, ages 4 and 1, to the cafe for takeouts.
By early Tuesday morning, more than 670 messages of condolences had been posted online on the Officer Down Memorial Page.
"I remember when everyone at my house saw all the police cars rushing down Mountain Hwy during my New Year's party, and everyone was wondering what had happened," wrote a 15-year-old girl who identified herself as Janelle, a neighbor of the Anderson's.
"Then I remember slowly hearing more and more about what happened up at Mount. Rainier. It really takes a long time for stuff like this to sink in, especially when something this big hits such a small town like Eatonville."
Anderson, 34, was the youngest of three children, who had worked at the park for four years along with her husband and fellow park ranger, Eric Anderson.
She had always liked the outdoors and she liked helping people, her father, Paul Kritsch, told KING. And that is why, she loved her job as a ranger, he said.
She died after a traffic stop Sunday morning.
Rangers had set up a checkpoint between the Longmire and Paradise areas in the park to ensure that drivers had the proper tires and tire chains for their vehicles.
The gunmen blew through the checkpoint and then sped toward an area called Paradise where Anderson and another ranger had parked their vehicle to serve as another roadblock.
Park superintendent Randy King said rangers "made a conscious decision to (stop Barnes), so he wouldn't get into the middle of a parking lot, where you've got hundreds of visitors potentially."
The gunmen jumped out of his car and opened fire on the rangers. Bullets missed the other ranger.
The shooting set off a massive manhunt across the park's steep, snow-covered and wooded terrain.
It ended with the discovery of Barnes in a river wearing only a T-shirt, pair of jeans and one tennis shoe.
The cause of Barnes' death was unclear, but Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County sheriff's department, said he may have been a victim of the frigid weather.
The park was closed Sunday and Monday and would probably remain closed until authorities were finished investigating, King said. "It's nothing you ever hope to experience, but here it is," he said. "Indications are that this person stepped out and opened fire, so I don't think she had much of a chance."
Barnes, a 24-year-old Army veteran, also was wanted in connection with a shooting Sunday in the Seattle suburb of Skyway that left four people wounded, CNN affiliates reported, citing the King County sheriff's department.
Park Ranger Killed @ Mt. Rainier
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