Kirsten Larsen
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 08/99) - A Hay River elder died of a heart attack Wednesday, Feb. 3 while out hunting caribou with a friend in the Faber Lake area.

Allan Orlan Johnson, 65, and 27-year-old Richard Desnomie drove to the end of the winter road between Wha Ti and Gameti and proceeded on Ski-Doo to go hunting for caribou Wednesday afternoon.

After snowmobiling approximately half an hour they found some caribou.

"(Johnson) got off the Ski-Doo and knelt down to shoot a caribou and his buddy went off a ways to shoot another," said Sgt. Frank Foran of the Rae RCMP detachment. "(Desnomie) said he turned around, saw (Johnson) and heard him fire a couple of times, then (Desnomie) fired a couple of times then he turned around and saw (Johnson) face down in the snow."

Foran said Desnomie performed CPR on Johnson for approximately 20-30 minutes before he got on his snowmobile to get help. He went to a camp where the road-plow crew were stationed. There, a worker at the camp used a satellite phone to call the RCMP.

The RCMP met Desnomie and another individual on the winter road as they were bringing Johnson's body back.

"He probably died pretty instantly," said Foran. "He was known to have a history of heart disease."

Johnson was pronounced dead upon arrival at Stanton Regional Hospital Wednesday evening.