When Michael A. Thomas walked alone into the woods of Allegany County a week ago yesterday, perhaps it was without a thought of encountering anything more than the normal difficulty of clambering through the darkness up a steep slope toward Tomcat Hollow.
Near midday on Nov. 5, the opening day of turkey hunting season in Maryland, Thomas was found dead, his body trapped beneath a slab of rock weighing perhaps 1,000 pounds.
"What happened to that hunter was an unusual thing," said Lt. Donald Street, head of Maryland's Natural Resources Police hunting and boating safety education programs. "In my years in this state I have never heard of such a thing happening -- and once it happened, it must have quickly become very much a survival situation.
"Survival situations are not something we think of much around here, though, not like they do in Maine, for example, or out west."
Thomas, an experienced hunter from Greencastle, Pa., who was hunting at Dans Mountain Wildlife Management Area, apparently became trapped by the loose slab of rock after he tried to retrieve his flashlight from beneath it, according to a Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman.
"If you look at how the investigators pieced it together afterward, it makes sense that it could have happened that way," said Patty Manown of DNR's public information office in the western region. "The flashlight was found at the base of what had been a crevice beneath the slab before it came loose."
One theory, Manown said, is that Thomas had dropped his light while scrambling up the steep slope in wet leaves and loose underfooting and dislodged the slab while trying to recover it.
Once broken loose, the slab slid into Thomas and trapped him against a small tree. The hunter's body was crushed from the pelvis down, according to police who investigated the accident.
Unable to move, in excruciating pain and unable to summon help, police theorize that Thomas may have shot himself with a fourth shell from his shotgun.
"From what I understand," Street said, "he did what he could. He fired three shots, which is what we teach in our hunter safety education course is the signal for immediate assistance. But on the opening day of any hunting season you never know whether anyone would pay attention to that -- even if they heard the shots."
The hunters who found Thomas' body -- Al Borzoo and Michael Brown from the Washington suburbs -- said they had been hunting the other side of the hill, did not hear a three-shot distress signal, and found the dead hunter only because they saw his orange vest.
Other hunters in the area interviewed by police investigators said they had heard shots early in the day but assumed them to be from other turkey and squirrel hunters in the area.
"Is there something to be learned from that man's death?" said Street. "There is always some kind of lesson to be learned from hunting accidents -- whether it is the guy who shoots himself in the foot or the guy who breaks his neck falling out of a tree stand. But in the case of this hunter, it was such an unusual accident that help might not have been in time no matter what he did."
Street recommends that hunters go to the areas they want to hunt in groups and then split up, being certain that each knows the directions the others are going and setting a time and location for regrouping.
"It can be like filing a float plan when you go boating," Street said. "Give someone a time and place of departure and a time you expect to be back. That way, if you are overdue, someone, somewhere will know."
In the case of Thomas, however, probably it would have been hours past noon before anyone knew he was overdue. Police assume that the slab of rock slid onto him before first light because his flashlight was found turned on, its batteries fading.
Street cautions hunters who are used to working the well-settled lowlands of the state to take a good look at the expanses of the western counties, where some tracts of public hunting land stretch over many thousands of acres.
"Out there it can be quite desolate, miles away from main roads, a long distance between houses," Street said. "You think you can just call for help and have someone come running. Well, it isn't always just so."
With hunting seasons moving into high gear over the next couple of weeks before modern firearms season opens for deer on Nov. 26, Street urges hunters to plan their trips and to use caution once they are afield.
"We have pretty much solved the problems of hunters shooting other hunters [with hunter safety education and mandatory hunter orange in most seasons]," Street said, "but there are still an average of about 30 hunting accidents a year.
"And the biggest problem now is self-inflicted wounds."
There were no hunting fatalities in Maryland last year, Street said.
"But there are still people who fall out of tree stands because they didn't hook up the safety belt," Street said, "and hunters who wound their companions by swinging to shoot too quickly; or who shoot themselves because they are climbing over fences or fallen trees while holding loaded weapons.
"When hunters take their time and follow the rules of safety, even these lesser accidents can be avoided."