In loving memory of Jeremy McSpadden

An 18-year-old from Spokane Valley was killed last night in the Incredible Corn Maze at Hauser Lake when a bus inside the maze struck him, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office.

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 After the incredible time I had with my sister and friends last night at several haunted attractions this is the most heart breaking news to wake up to.

For those of you who follow my live action movie reviews and or like my random status updates of me screaming at people in horror movies know nothing provokes my righteous ire more than people who choose to run into the cornfields when fleeing from monsters and madmen.

Last night was the very 1^st time my sister and I were actually in a cornfield. The 1^st thing a city

dweller notices when being in real life farm country is how dark it is at night. It’s even darker in a corn field, it’s naturally claustrophobic and the terrain is uneven. Being inside a corn field at night is unsettling even when nothing is going on, so much so that I broke the cardinal rule by instantly utilized my flashlight app on my phone. The rebuke was immediate.

Its easy to Monday morning quarterback or be an armchair general but this isn’t what this is about because I can totally see how something like this could happen.

The Seattle horror community is a pretty tight knit family, and the people who are responsible for putting these haunts together take their jobs seriously even thou 90% of them are volunteers. They work incredibly hard and put in tons of hours to put on the best show that they possibly can, brainstorming and planning starting months in advance. They vent to their friends about what goes on behind the scenes, call each other out and then fight on facebook about perceived slackers and the injustice of towing someone else’s line. They go to each other’s haunts to critique each other’s sets because they want the equivalent of the fan’s choice awards in the form of longer lines, glowing reviews, and tons of social media tags.

They do this all for us, so I can totally see how something like this could happen. But…

Working around heavy equipment my entire adult life there is a huge piece of me that drops everything to ask ‘how safe is this?’ the minute any type of machinery is involved. I stand in line at amusement parks scrutinizing the framework looking for the tell-tale signs of properly preventive and the upkeeping of schedule maintenance, making a b-line to the food court at the 1^st sign of a rusted bolt, the faintest whisper of dry, grinding gears.

Without a doubt there is blame here, but I’m not the one to cast it. The zombie slayer bus was a brand new attraction for  the Incredible Corn Maze at Hauser Lake. A brand new attraction just for us…the fans.

I didn’t know this kid, but my heart is breaking just the same because I know a dozen kids and adults just like him. They do what they do for the sheer love of it. They do what they do for us, the fans. But at the end of the day, we the fans are not worth this. My deepest condolences to the McSpadden family and to everyone who knew and loved Jeremy. 

Spokane Valley Teen Killed at Hauser Corn Maze