A 27-year-old man with ties to Brown County was shot and killed in Colorado late last month.
A fundraiser has been started to help his family bring his body home to Indiana for burial.
Jonathon Kern was found in a driveway in Cotopaxi, Colorado, on Sept. 22, according to the Canon City Daily Record newspaper. An investigation is under way.
Kern’s mother, Ellen Huesman, lives in Brown County. He attended school at Helmsburg Elementary, according to Brown County Democrat archives.
Kern owned Kern Drywall and Construction Company in Cotopaxi. He served in the United States National Guard from 2009 to 2010 and was honorably discharged, earning the Army Achievement Medal, his obituary reads.
He will be buried next to his “Nana” Sue Boles in Bedford.
Kern’s family and friends are raising money through GoFundMe to cover the costs of transporting Kern’s body from Colorado to Indiana for burial. His funeral will be Saturday, Oct. 6 in Columbus.
“Words are inadequate to convey how devastated Jonathon’s mother, family and friends are at this time. Compounding the family’s agony is the financial component,” the fundraiser page reads.
Kern was a private contractor and did not have life insurance, the GoFundMe page says. The expenses to transport his body will exceed $10,000, “an amount that the family can’t afford to pay,” the page states.
As of Oct. 2, the page had raised $5,875 of the $10,000 goal.
“Jonathon was an incredible guy who loved his friends and family so much,” the page reads. “He was an avid Harley rider who loved the outdoors and spent much of his free time hunting, fishing and and kayaking. He loved Colorado and everything it had to offer.”
