On the evening of Monday, April 4, a Vashon resident died in a hit-and-run accident that occurred south of the Harbor School on Vashon Highway S.W.

The person who died in the hit-and-run has been identified as Nathan Dorn Jr., a 74-year-old man who lived on Vashon. According to the King County Medical Examiner’s office, Dorn died of “multiple blunt force injuries.”

The Beachcomber has attempted to obtain the police report from the King County Sheriff’s Department, but the department declined to release the records associated with the case.

“This is an open and active ongoing criminal investigation and the release of any information may hinder or damage the investigation,” said an email from Public Disclosure Program Manager Kimberly Petty. “This is a ‘categorical’ exemption, meaning the records are exempt as a whole in their entirety.”

One islander, Jesse Whitford, was an eyewitness and the first on the scene to where Dorn was found. Whitford had been coming off the 10:35 ferry from Fauntleroy and was traveling southbound on Vashon Highway.

As Whitford was driving, he said he saw something that “didn’t feel right” on the side of the road and turned around to see what was there. At about 11 p.m., Whitford found Dorn’s body and made the initial call to 911.

According to Whitford, the Sheriff’s department responded in less than five minutes, with EMTs following soon after. Whitford remained on the scene for over an hour and gave a statement once detectives were able to arrive on the scene. Whitford did not depart the scene until around 12:20 a.m. He also reported that Dorn had been wearing a bright yellow reflective vest at the time.

According to KIRO 7 News, the King County Sheriff’s Office’s Major Accident Response and Reconstruction Unit announced that it arrested a person they believe is responsible for the hit-and-run as of Friday, April 8. Charges have not yet been filed against the person, who is believed to be an islander.

The Beachcomber spoke with both Dorn’s sister, Dorinda Kopp, and a family friend, Amber Guthrie, who provided more details about Nathan’s life.

Dorn was a long-time resident of Vashon, who grew up in Wenatchee and West Seattle, as part of a large family. Dorn moved to the island in the years after he returned from the Vietnam War, where is served as a medic, working on battlefields alongside Marines. He was badly injured in the war and was on full disability for those injuries. He lived simply on a five-acre plot of land which he had purchased after returning stateside, his sister said.

Both his father and grandfather had served in the military as well.

Guthrie both said that Dorn walked everywhere on Vashon and that she believed he was returning home from town at the time he was hit by a car and killed. He was almost home at the time of his death, said Kopp, who visited the site of her brother’s death, and his property, on Thursday.

At the site of Dorn’s death, she said, she had left flowers and a rosary that had adorned the casket of her and Nathan’s father.

This is a developing story.