Family: Benbrook Man Was The Victim Of Deadly Slip & Fall Accident
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NORTH TEXAS (CBS 11 NEWS) - On Friday it was revealed Thursday's victim of a deadly, bizarre slip-and-fall accident in Fort Worth was Ricky Joe Katcher, of Benbrook.
Katcher's pickup spun out on an Interstate-20 bridge. When he got out of the truck he apparently slipped and fell over the side and fell some 60 feet below onto railroad tracks. The 51-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.
Fort Worth police were working a nearby accident and reportedly saw Katcher's fall.
In a bizarre twist of fate, family members knew about the wreck hours before they knew their brother was the victim. Some had seen accounts of the fatality on late Thursday TV news -- but they say early reports put the cross street at Aledo Road, not Old Aledo Road.
Cindy Kirkpatrick was shocked when hours later she got word that the victim was her brother. "But then we finally heard the next story. We figured out it was this one, the Old Aledo Road, not the regular one."
Another sister, Wendy Belisle, said the entire family is stunned. "There's a real person that died; and a real family that's grieving."
Family members came to the scene late Friday. The retaining wall is not that high, about 30-inches tall. Some ice and snow were still visible.
The family said Katcher is the divorced father of an adult son and had been living with his own father since his mother's death. "We fought like normal brothers and sisters growing up all the time," Belisle told CBS 11 News, adding, "But mess with any one of us, typically, and we banded together."
"He was a very fine person," echoed Kirkpatrick. "If you needed help he'd be there to help you no matter who you were. If he could help you he would."
As it stands, Belisle say the family has many unanswered questions they'd like to put to investigators. "We're anxious to hear. We'd like to talk to the officers on the scene to find out what happened."
Funeral arrangements for Ricky Joe Katcher are incomplete as of this writing.
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