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Park Ranger

Mount Rainier National Park superintendent Randy King walks past a photo of Ranger Margaret Anderson and traditional ranger equipment before speaking at Anderson's memorial service Tuesday in Tacoma, Wash. Anderson, a 34-year-old mother of two young girls, was shot and killed Jan. 1 after setting up a roadblock to stop a vehicle that blew through a checkpoint on the road to the park's visitor center. (ELAINE THOMPSON/The Associated Press)

Thousands celebrate life of slain Mount Rainier ranger with Utah ties

Last updated Wednesday, January 11, 2012 - 12:50am

TACOMA, Wash. — Margaret Anderson became a law enforcement officer with the National Park Service because she wanted to help people, and she put herself in the way of evil on New Year’s Day because of her deep religious faith and love for others, her father told thousands of people Tuesday at her memorial service.

Crime, Bryce Canyon National Park, Firefighters, Funeral, Mount Rainer shooting, National Parks, Park Ranger, Utah, Deaths, Law Enforcement Read more Comments

A photograph of Margaret Anderson and mountaineering sits on the stage of the memorial for U.S. National Park ranger Margaret Anderson held in Olsen Auditorium on the Pacific Lutheran University campus in Parkland, Wash. , Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012. Anderson was shot and killed on duty in Mount Rainier Naitional Park on New Year's Day. (AP Photo/The News Tribune, Peter Haley, Pool)

Thousands celebrate life of slain park ranger with Utah ties

Phuong Le The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - 5:07pm

TACOMA, Wash. -- Top federal officials, fellow park rangers and thousands of well-wishers have gathered in Washington state to celebrate the life of Margaret Anderson, a Mount Rainier National Park ranger who was fatally shot on New Year's Day.

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Paper coffee cups dropped from copter warned Rainier campers of suspect on loose

Craig Welch The Seattle Times

Last updated Thursday, January 5, 2012 - 6:40pm

It was Monday morning, Jan. 2, and the four Seattle hikers were more than halfway through a beautiful weekend of winter camping at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.

Now someone in a chopper was barking a garbled message through a loudspeaker.

Crime, Murder, Mount Rainer National Park, Park Ranger, Shooting, National Read more Comments

This undated photo provided by Mount Rainier National Park shows park Ranger Margaret Anderson. Anderson, 34, was fatally shot Sunday, Jan. 1, 2012, at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state, according to the National Park Service. Officials closed the park after the shooting Sunday, and asked people to stay out of the area while they search for a man carrying a long rifle. (AP Photo/Mount Rainier National Park)

Slain park ranger met husband while working at Bryce Canyon

Steve Miletich The Seattle Times

Last updated Tuesday, January 3, 2012 - 1:46pm

Margaret Anderson and her husband, Eric, were living their dream, finally working as U.S. park rangers in the same national park while raising a young family, their relatives said.

"They had been looking for that for a long time, to be in the same park," Margaret Anderson's father, the Rev. Paul Kritsch, said in a telephone interview.

Kritsch, a Lutheran minister in Scotch Plains, N.J., recalled his 34-year-old daughter's life, after she was fatally shot while working at her law-enforcement job in Mount Rainier National Park.

"As you can well imagine, it doesn't seem real," he said of her death.

Murder, Mount Rainer National Park, Park Ranger, Shooting, National Read more Comments