ZippyDippyDoo
Member
A woman was killed by lightning moments before her boyfriend was planning to propose to her on a scenic mountain top.
Bethany Lott, 25, was on a hike with Richard Butler, 30, unaware that he had an engagement ring in his pocket and was summoning up the courage to ask her to marry him.
She had just turned to him and said "Look how beautiful it is" when the lightning struck on Max Patch Bald, a mountain near Asheville, North Carolina.
Mr Butler was thrown to the ground and suffered third degree burns.
He said: "We had got most of the way up through the rain and all of a sudden the most brilliant sun broke through.
"Then my legs gave out and everything went black for a millisecond. I was thrown a few feet back and spun 180 degrees. My shoes were smoking and the bottom of my feet felt like they were on fire," he told the Asheville Citizen Times.
"She didn't say anything, and I turned around and she was laying a few feet away, and I crawled to her." Mr Butler, a grocery store worker, desperately tried to resuscitate his girlfriend for 15 minutes and could not get a signal on a mobile pone to call or help.
Unable to carry her down the hill he had to leave Miss Lott and hike down to get rescuers, but they were unable to revive her.
The couple, from Knoxville, Tennessee, had gone to the mountain because Miss Lott, who was studying to become a park ranger, was a keen hiker.
Mr Butler said that, as an emergency medical team tried to save her, he put the ring on her finger.
He said: "She was really good at spotting the beauty in things. I know she would have said yes."
So sad...
Bethany Lott, 25, was on a hike with Richard Butler, 30, unaware that he had an engagement ring in his pocket and was summoning up the courage to ask her to marry him.
She had just turned to him and said "Look how beautiful it is" when the lightning struck on Max Patch Bald, a mountain near Asheville, North Carolina.
Mr Butler was thrown to the ground and suffered third degree burns.
He said: "We had got most of the way up through the rain and all of a sudden the most brilliant sun broke through.
"Then my legs gave out and everything went black for a millisecond. I was thrown a few feet back and spun 180 degrees. My shoes were smoking and the bottom of my feet felt like they were on fire," he told the Asheville Citizen Times.
"She didn't say anything, and I turned around and she was laying a few feet away, and I crawled to her." Mr Butler, a grocery store worker, desperately tried to resuscitate his girlfriend for 15 minutes and could not get a signal on a mobile pone to call or help.
Unable to carry her down the hill he had to leave Miss Lott and hike down to get rescuers, but they were unable to revive her.
The couple, from Knoxville, Tennessee, had gone to the mountain because Miss Lott, who was studying to become a park ranger, was a keen hiker.
Mr Butler said that, as an emergency medical team tried to save her, he put the ring on her finger.
He said: "She was really good at spotting the beauty in things. I know she would have said yes."
So sad...
