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the more we piece together from the forensic evidence that was found around the site of stepan's death, it becomes more apparent that it was not a suicide, but a careless accident.
the evidence indicates that he stood at the foot of the stairs in the back yard, after dark, loaded a charge into the flare gun, fired it up into the open sky above him, loaded another charge and fired that one similarly, and the gun likely heated up tremendously from the two firings. it appears he went to load a third charge into the hot chamber, and it ignited the nitrocellulose in the cartridge prematurely, exploding the plastic gun, in a 15 foot radius around his feet, blasting back at him with violently superheated, pyrotechnic, toxic, corrosive gases, blinding him in the dark, searing his airways and throat as he was breathing in, concussed inside his head, and in immense pain, most likely he groped in partial consciousness, somehow blindly making his way downhill the 20 feet, to the trees and hammock, and laid down, probably hoping the pain would pass, if he could just stay there and wait for the ability to think to come back to him.
it looks to be the result of cheap merchandise he ordered in secret over the internet, not wanting his dad to know he'd aquired it, bady made or defective, with no thought for user safety, or mishandled--
stepan was handling it without training, without thinking, proceeding blithely and ignorantly--- and alone.
the sad part is, thinking over it now, it is possible that his dad came home just shortly after it happened, within some minutes to a half an hour.
had he for some reason gone out in the back yard to look for him, he might have found him still alive, and been able to get him to the ER in time to save his life. the accident might have happened on sunday night, around 9, 9:30, 10 pm, and his dad usually makes sure to be home and get to bed around that hour, to be up for work with enough sleep. it's entirely possible stepan was still alive, stunned unconscious, down in the hammock, and had only been half an hour into the trauma, at the time his dad came in that night, ---but in the pitch dark, they didn't see him.
we don't know. when the report can tell us the time of death, more of the picture will emerge.
janet
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