{"id":76892,"date":"2018-02-06T13:55:30","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T20:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/elderly-man-former-fort-lewis-college-student-found-dead-in-separate-incidents\/"},"modified":"2018-02-06T20:55:30","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T20:55:30","slug":"elderly-man-former-fort-lewis-college-student-found-dead-in-separate-incidents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/elderly-man-former-fort-lewis-college-student-found-dead-in-separate-incidents\/","title":{"rendered":"Elderly man, former Fort Lewis College student found dead in separate incidents"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Paul John Erickson, 85, was found dead around noon Jan. 30 by his wife at his home in north Durango, Smith said.<\/p>\n

Erickson had a long history of depression, she said. Authorities determined he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.<\/p>\n

According to an obituary, Erickson was born in Wisconsin, and moved to Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. He moved to Durango in 1957, working with the Colorado Department of Transportation for 30 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaul was a gifted artist and an accomplished woodworker,\u201d the obituary said. \u201cHe loved fishing, camping, golfing and encouraging his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in all of their endeavors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erickson is survived by his wife, Anne; children, Joel and Paula; as well as a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 31, authorities received a report around 7 a.m. from a friend that their roommate, 22-year-old Emily Dee, had been missing for a day or two. The friends lived in downtown Durango.<\/p>\n

Durango Police located Dee about an hour later. She was found dead by hanging. Smith ruled the death a suicide. Dee was a former student at Fort Lewis College, said FLC spokesman Mitch Davis.<\/p>\n

She, too, struggled with a history of depression, Smith said.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Suicide resources<\/h4>\n

Help for people having suicidal thoughts or for those who fear a person is considering killing himself can be found from these sources:
\n Axis Health System:<\/strong>
\n 24-hour hotline at 247-5245.
\n National Suicide Prevention Hotline:<\/strong>
\n (800) 273-TALK (8255) or text \u201cTALK\u201d to 741741.
\n RED Nacional de Prevenci\u00f3N Del Suicidio:<\/strong>
\n (888) 628-9454.
\n National Crisis text Hotline:<\/strong>
\n 741741
\n Fort Lewis College Counseling Center:<\/strong>
\n 247-7212.
\n Boys Town Hotline:<\/strong>
\n (800) 448-3000.
\n Safe2Tell Colorado:<\/strong>
\n (877) 542-7233 or online at
\n https:\/\/safe2tell.org<\/a>
\n .
\n Colorado Crisis Support Line:<\/strong>
\n (844) 493-8255 or text \u201cTALK\u201d to 38255 or online at
\n http:\/\/www.coloradocrisisservices.org\/<\/a>
\n to access a live chat available in 17 languages. The line has mental-health professionals available to talk to adults or youths about any crisis, 24 hours a day.
\n Trevor Project:<\/strong>
\n (866) 488-7386. Crisis intervention and suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth via online chat, text or phone.
\n Southern Ute Community Action Program:<\/strong>
\n Visit
\n www.sucap.org<\/a>
\n and click on Suicide Prevention for a list of trained gatekeepers.
\n Second Wind Fund:<\/strong>
\n (720) 962-0706. This is not a crisis hotline, but the fund is available to youths who face social or financial barriers to crisis counseling. The organization requires a referral by a school counselor or mental-health professional.
\n Survivors Support Group:<\/strong>
\n Heartbeat of Durango meets from 6 to 8 p.m. the second Wednesday of every month at the La Plata County Fairgrounds, 2500 Main Ave. Contact Janna for information at (970) 749-1673.
\n American Foundation for Suicide Prevention:<\/strong>
\n Colorado chapter information available at
\n https:\/\/afsp.org\/chapter\/afsp-colorado\/<\/a>
\n For Men:<\/strong>
\n A website for adult men contemplating suicide, who often are unwilling to seek help, is available at
\n www.mantherapy.org<\/a>
\n .<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

du1-i-syn Paul John Erickson, 85, was found dead around noon Jan. 30 by his wife at his home in north Durango, Smith said. Erickson had a long history of depression, she said. Authorities determined he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. According to an obituary, Erickson was born in Wisconsin, and moved to Roswell, New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,955],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-76892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-suicide"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76892"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=76892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}