CONDOLENCES

A tragic and very bizarre incident happened in Cromwell, Indiana this past Saturday night (1.5.2008). Cromwell is about five miles from the Author’s hometown of Ligonier.

Shane Feightner, 40, shot himself with a muzzle-loading shotgun. The round went through him and struck and killed his girlfriend who was standing behind him. The girlfriend, Kimberly Patches, was killed instantly. Feightner was taken to Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne where he died later that night.

Police believe that the shooting was a suicide and that Patches was accidentally killed. They had apparently been drinking and the incident may have involved a domestic dispute.

The Author does not know Shane Feightner personally. However, the Feightner name is uncommon and Feightner family members that have studied the family geneaology believe that many Feightner’s are distantly related.

The Author and his Feightner family line are descended from Henrich Feightner, a stone mason that immigrated to the then-British colonies in 1770 from Eberscheim, Germany. Feightner reportedly worked as a stone mason for the Revolutionary War effort. Many Germans emigrated to the United States in the 18th Century.

Feightner came to America with his friend, Jacob Holzsinger. The Author would like to think that Henrich came to the US to avoid prosecution or scandal in Germany. The Author would also like to think that Henrich killed a man over a woman, or that he came to America because another man threatened him with death over a woman, but that is the romantic in the Author.

The Author extends his deepest condolences to the families of Shane Feightner and Ms. Patches.