Franklin coroner reports on Palouse Falls death

Franklin County Coroner Dan Blasdel May 17 issued official identification and a cause of the unattended death of Noble Stoneman, the WSU graduate who fell into the Palouse River above Palouse Falls last May 10. Blasdel determined the cause of death was drowning, but said Noble was believed to be unconscious when he fell into the river basin above the falls.

Stoneman was hiking along a path above the basin when the ground gave away. He fell approximately 100 feet and hit a ledge, then fell into the river basin.

Blasdel said a fisherman at the scene witnessed the fall.

The autopsy revealed Stoneman sustained severe spinal injures when he hit the ledge above the basin and that knocked him unconscious, Blasdel said.

Stoneman's body was recovered Monday below the falls by the Franklin County Sheriff''s office with a dive team and Med Star helicopter.

Stoneman, who was from Naches, was a spring graduate at WSU. Blasdel said he learned that Stoneman had received a degree in electrical engineering and had been scheduled to begin work with a firm in Bozeman, Mont.

The coroner said Stoneman and a roommate hiked out on one of several pathways which can be accessed on the other side of a four-foot fence from the public parking area at the falls.

He said it was his understanding the state parks department has come under pressure because of the loss of lives at the falls where four people have died since 2015, three of them within the last year.

The Franklin County coroner said he expected a bill of some sort to surface in the next session of the legislature.