"He was totally bloody, all bloody," said Myers.

Heikki said he was going out the back door when a heavyset white man grabbed him, punched him in the face and took off running.

In an interview at her Ash Fork home, Myers said she gave Heikki some medical supplies and called police and paramedics.

Before they arrived, Heikki called his wife, who had traveled to Tucson that morning, to tell her what had happened. "You aren't going to like the way my face looks," he told her.

But when paramedics arrived, Heikki refused medical attention and wouldn't tell the police who had assaulted him. Later he told his neighbor it was the same man who'd hit him a few weeks earlier after asking directions to Chino Valley.

"Ingstrom said he didn't want to say anything to me because this had happened several times in the past, and if he said anything, someone might hurt his dogs," deputy Ron Knoll said in a report he wrote after responding to the scene.

Myers went over to check on Heikki the next day and called for him through the front door. Heikki stirred, and as she watched, he fell backward out the back door of the trailer. She presumes he hit his head. Heikki crawled up and into the house and was standing inside. Maxie, Heikki's mean dog, was loose, so Myers couldn't get too close.

When Myers turned to walk back home, Heikki called to her again.

"It was the way he said it that got me. He said 'Karen, Karen,' like he was calling for help," Myers said.

She watched as Heikki collapsed inside his home. He never regained consciousness. A helicopter flew him to a Phoenix hospital. Ana called Makarewicz in the middle of the night while Heikki lay in a coma.

It was left to Makarewicz to coordinate with nurses in Phoenix, notify his family about the injuries — and tell Heikki's family he was married.

Erja Ingstrom flew to her brother's side immediately. Heikki was pronounced dead Dec. 23.

Police initially investigated the case as a homicide. They found the trailer in disarray and blood throughout the living area.

Ana Ingstrom was under suspicion at first.

"She was our No. 1 suspect when we started," said detective Sgt. Dean Wells of the Coconino County Sheriff's Office. He conducted a four-hour interview with her, and Ana had alibis for all of the times when Heikki said he was assaulted.

Ana, according to police, still believes her husband was murdered.

The Pima County medical examiner ruled Heikki's death an accident. Another county medical examiner agreed.

Detective Dan Bracco said he thought there had been an assault.