A sketchy accounting of these factors comes from police reports and his conversations that fall with family and friends in Salt Lake City, neighbors and a cousin in Finland.

It started with racial slurs directed toward Ana Ingstrom. Some locals apparently did not want a Mexican-born teacher in the school.

Heikki stood up for Ana in heated conversations with residents of the town.

Four more assaults followed, according to what Heikki told people:

In late October, someone broke into their mobile home, killed their pet parakeets, laid them out in a line on the bed and left a threatening note.

In November, Heikki said he was in a bar in the nearby town of Williams. He was talking to residents about his wife and the Ash Fork School District and was followed by two men when he left. Heikki pulled over and one of the men attacked him.

Two weeks later, Heikki was walking in the pinyon pines and juniper trees behind his trailer home. He told neighbors and Ana that he came upon a guy walking who asked directions to Chino Valley. As Heikki turned and pointed to give directions, the man hit him in the head with brass knuckles and took off. He was bruised and bloody when he came home, according to Myers.

Another time, Heikki stopped his car on a road to get one of his dogs back in; another car pulled up, someone got out and assaulted him.

Heikki did not report any of these events to police. After his death, detectives weren't able to confirm that any of the harassment or assaults had happened.

About Dec. 10, Ana was suspended from her teaching position. She told police she was disciplined because she allowed students to play rap music after completing their school work. The school principal told police she was suspended for listening to the music and for using a student's cell phone.

Ana did not attend the hearing. She resigned Dec. 22, the day before Heikki died.

"It really was an extended period of trouble," said Makarewicz, who was in the closest contact with Heikki in the last months of his life.

A few days before he died, Heikki called a cousin in Finland and said the harassment was getting so bad they were going to have to move.

"Get out of there," the cousin said. "It sounds like the Wild West."

"That is exactly what this place is," Heikki reportedly told him.

"We don't have any evidence that this was a homicide. It appears to be an accidental death." — Lt. Rex Gilliland, head of criminal investigations, Coconino County Sheriff's Office

Much of the investigation into his death has focused on an event two days before Heikki died.

On Dec. 21, Heikki walked over to his neighbor's trailer to ask for help.