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Posted by: kwflatbed

By Michael N. Westley and Jason Bergreen
The Salt Lake Tribune


Uintah County, UT -- As word of Uintah County Sheriff's Detective Kevin Orr's death spread through the rural county, those who knew him said he will be missed greatly.

Orr, an 11-year veteran killed in a helicopter crash on Tuesday, leaves behind a wife, Holly Orr, and four children under the age of 12. They live in Lapointe, a small farming town west of Vernal.
"[Kevin] died doing what he loved to do. He was always the first one to respond and out trying to help someone else," said Orr's brother-in-law, Eric Hartle. "In our eyes he died a hero."

Orr and pilot Brian Grayson from Reno, Nev., were in the helicopter searching for a missing Jensen woman when it struck power lines and dropped into the Green River about 12:50 p.m. Sheriff's Lt. John Laursen confirmed Orr's death this morning.

Orr, 34, was the 116th law enforcement officer to die in the line of duty in Utah and the third to die in a helicopter crash, according to Robert Kirby, a Tribune columnist and police historian.

Laursen said Grayson, who was taken to University Hospital, was doing "a lot better.... We spoke with him this morning. He was alert and conscious."

The helicopter, owned by Martin Drilling, hit a 69,000-volt transmission line that runs parallel to Jensen and across the Green River, said Moon Lake Electric Co. spokesman Russell Cowan.

Several Moon Lake employees were sent to the area and confirmed the helicopter was in the water, he said.

The helicopter was being used to look for 25-year-old Kimberly Michelle Turney, who was last seen Friday before she was involved in a car crash near the area of Tuesday's helicopter crash. Turney has not been heard from since the automobile accident.

Search crews also were scouring the area on foot when the helicopter went down, the sheriff's office reported.

The transmission line provides power to customers from Jensen to Dinosaur, Colo., about 25 miles away, Cowan said.




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Posted by: kwflatbed

Utah Detective Killed in Helicopter Crash Laid to Rest


JEREMIAH STETTLER
The Salt Lake Tribune



Uintah County, Utah-- In what would be his last Sunday school lesson, Kevin Orr recently urged the young men to make wise decisions, for their choices today could shape eternity.
Orr made his decision in 1995 when he entered the police academy, embarking on a career path that cost him his life Tuesday while he searched for a missing woman.
He never looked back, colleagues said, and eventually paid law enforcement's ultimate price.
A volley of 21 rifle shots echoed over the man's hometown Saturday as his tight-knit community joined law enforcement officers from across the state in mourning the fallen officer.
The Uintah County sheriff's detective died last week from injuries suffered when his helicopter hit a power line and plunged into the Green River during a search and rescue mission for Kimberly Turney. The Jensen woman's body was found Thursday, and police are investigating her death.
As family members gathered around Orr's burial plot this weekend, two search helicopters rumbled over a sagebrush-speckled ridge nearby. One lingered overhead. The other trailed into the distance in memory of the officer who never returned.
A massive American flag fluttered at the cemetery entrance, suspended between ladder trucks of the Roosevelt and Vernal fire departments.
"It is a loss for our whole community," said Lt. Gale Rasmussen of the Vernal Fire Department. Hundreds had assembled an hour before at the LDS Stake Center in Maeser. Police cruisers clogged the parking lot for what would become a lights-and-sirens procession to the cemetery grounds 15 miles away.
Family members wept for this 11-year police veteran, who leaves behind four children under the age of 12. They spoke of his love for cooking, his knack for listening and of his devotion to the young men of his Mormon congregation.
They also spoke of rough days ahead in coping with the man's untimely death, just two days before the Thanksgiving holiday.
"We ask that those hearts that are broken may be healed," prayed Troy Slaugh, a family friend.
Jerry Young, a fellow youth mentor with Orr, shook occasional laughs out of the otherwise somber funeral service as he spoke of his friend pasting a dog food label to a chili can, then eating the contents in front of the young men.
He talked of the man's love for his family and said he often jibed his buddy about making "a good wife someday" because of his propensity for cooking and cleaning.
Then, his voice broke. "Kevin was a just and honest man. It was his time to go."
The funeral procession then stretched through Uintah County's arid hills - textured with sagebrush, junipers and redrock - to Orr's resting place. There, Vernal police Sgt. Shawn Lewis watched the vehicles approach as a bagpiper rehearsed "Amazing Grace."
A tear trickled from beneath the officer's sunglasses. He spoke of working alongside Orr in law enforcement and of competing against him when the pair coached rival softball teams. He said the deputy's loss has left the community in profound "sadness."
He vowed that Orr's widow and four children "will be taken care of" as they enter the holiday season without their father.
As for law enforcement, Lewis said their work goes on. "They'll pick up where they left off yesterday," he said. "But hopefully this will refresh the dangers in their mind."

Copyright 2005 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy

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