Explosion/graduation

It was a war scene that almost always requires body bags.

Almost. Mary Patterson found it hard to believe that anyone could survive the wreckage before her that moments earlier had been a small ranch house off E. Hoxie Road. She was headed home the morning of June 2, 2007, after completing a shift as a Leelanau County Sheriff’s deputy when an urgent call for help blared over her radio. She became the first emergency responder at the scene.

Patterson found planks punctuated with nails strewn across the yard and on the county road, insulation hung high in trees. A peaked roof lacked walls to support it, lying flat on the ground.