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Funeral services were held Monday for Chisago County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Butcher, closing the sheriff’s offices for the day as friends and colleagues said goodbye. Butcher died in a drowning accident July 21 on the St. Croix River. He was 39.

Butcher was a 13-year officer with the Chisago County Sheriff’s Department. He was awarded the state’s Medal of Valor in 1997 for his courageous response an armed assailant was threatening people at a Fish Lake Township home.

The Butcher Family Memorial Fund is at Mainstreet Bank in Center City, 55012, for those caring to make donations. He is survived by his wife and two children.

According to information released through Polk County, Wisconsin Sheriff Ann Hraychuck, Butcher’s death July 21 was a freak accident. Polk County sheriff’s department received a 911 report of a possible drowning July 21, just north of the Highway 243 bridge, at Osceola, about 5:12 p.m.

Emergency responders from Osceola arrived with boats and worked against the current to get to where Butcher had been seen going under. One Osceola firefighter jumped into the river and located Butcher and got him into a boat, with help from a National Park Service ranger. CPR was begun and Butcher was transported to the Osceola Medical Center. After continued life-saving efforts, he was pronounced dead at the medical center.

Polk County investigators said Butcher was floating on the river from Franconia to Osceola with his wife, Lori and 13-year-old son.

He was on an air mattress and had a 15 to 20 foot rope tied around his ankle towing an inner tube holding a cooler. The rope got tangled in river debris and pulled Butcher under the water. Two adults also floating on mattresses in the area heard calls for aid and swam to help Butcher, but were unable to reach him. Canoists nearby then alerted 911.

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