Country music star Tyler Hicks took to social media to express his anguish at discovering the body of a man while out for a run.
Country music star Tyler Rich says he believes the spirit of a dead man helped lead him to the remains of the apparent suicide victim.
"Still reflecting on this constant feeling that I was in that random part of the park at the exact time I was supposed to be, to find that young man," Rich wrote on his Instagram account. "There are many coincidences that make me truly believe he led me to where he was at."
Rich said he had been running for more than two miles in Massachusetts' Chicopee State Park on New Year's Eve when he came upon a man lying facedown on the ground.
"I then saw what I thought was a young homeless man sleeping. He was on his stomach and had a bag tied around his foot and was faced down ... After running around him, I felt bad for him, he was sleeping facedown and just looked like he was in a bad place," Rich wrote on Twitter.
The singer approached the man, and realized he wasn't breathing, Rich said.
"As I get around to the front of him, all I see is a lifeless face covered in blood. Everywhere. Looked like maybe shot, or blunt force. At this moment I freak out and sprint up the steep hill to try and find anyone with a phone to call police," he said.
Officers arrived, and a gun was found in one of the man's hands, Rich said, and the death was apparently a suicide, he said.
"Not the way I planned on closing out 2020. This will be an image & moment I’ll never forget. I need to shoutout first responders & our military that look death in the eye every day, and are able to continue to live their everyday lives," he tweeted.
On Saturday, the singer said he has since talked to the man's mother, and learned he had much in common with the man.
"I don't think anyone in the area could have found him that understood him quite like me. II really feel this was meant to be. I wish I got to meet him, have a beer with him, and talk about what was hurting him so much. I'm broken over this and I didn't even know him," Rich wrote.
"Hug your loved ones as tight as you can today."
RELATED STORIES
