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Man found shot near burning truck in Wolcott

J.K. Perry Vail Correspondent

WOLCOTT – A man found shot Tuesday night beside a burning truck in a remote area north of Wolcott was alive Thursday in critical condition, the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office reported.Bradley Quale, 43, of Wisconsin, suffered gunshot wounds to the chest and was transported to Denver General Hospital. Investigators are unsure who shot the man, but they aren’t ruling out suicide, Capt. Bill Kaufman said “It’s a little bizarre,” Kaufman said. “They don’t think anyone was in the area. I think somebody could speculate from that that it was self perpetrated, but I don’t know that.”The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is combing the burnt truck to determine how it was set on fire, Kaufman said. Chief Charlie Moore of Eagle River Fire Protection District, whose firefighters helped put out the fire, said the wounded man could be to blame.”We believe he may have set fire to it,” Chief Charlie Moore said.Quale and the truck were found four miles north of Wolcott off Highway 131, in a remote area called the Bocco Mountain Special Recreation Area, by a woman who passed the smoking truck, Kaufman said. Few houses are in the area.”If it wasn’t a suicide attempt he was pretty lucky because not many people are driving by,” Kaufman said.Investigators are unsure why Quale was in the area, but items found in his truck indicate he has “ties” to Eagle and Summit counties, Kaufman said, but could not describe those ties more specifically. The investigation remained open Thursday.


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