Campbell County Sheriff's Office, South Dakota
End of Watch: Wednesday, August 4, 2004
Age: 45
Tour of Duty: 8 years
Badge Number: 16-1A
Cause of Death: Heart attack
Date of Incident: August 4, 2004
Weapon Used: Not available
Suspect Info: Not available
Sheriff John Bechtold suffered a fatal heart attack shortly after arriving at the scene of a fatal accident near Herreid at approximately 2300 hours.
The sheriff and his deputy were the first responders to arrive and he was performing CPR on one of the accident victims when he began to feel ill and collapsed. He died en route to a local hospital.
Sheriff Bechtold had served as sheriff for two years and had previously served as a deputy with the 2-person Campbell County Sheriff's Office for 6 years. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.