Three Individual Fatalities in Marion County

A 54-year-old Salem man was pronounced dead at his home Friday night from an apparent suicide.

Marion County Coroner Troy Cannon says Jerry Brasel was initially discovered by a relative in the home in Salem. Foul play is not suspected. Brasel was pronounced dead on the scene.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Department responded to the scene after receiving a 911 call just before nine Friday evening. The sheriff’s department is also conducting an investigation.

A 44-year-old Salem man has died in a Saturday morning motorcycle crash on the Selmaville Road near the Nation Road southwest of Salem.

The driver of the cycle, Christopher Campbell, was pronounced dead on the scene by the Marion County Coroner shortly after the crash occurred.

A passenger, 40-year-old Amanda Charlton of Salem, was ejected from the cycle and airlifted from nearby Selmaville School to Barnes Hospital in St. Louis.

State Police say Campbell was traveling southbound on Selmaville Road when he failed to reduce speed on a curve and drove off the roadway. The cycle struck a sign before coming to rest.

The crash occurred at 9:54 on Saturday morning.

Mitchell Norris, 63 of Vernon, died in a single-vehicle crash on the Vermundy Road in northern Marion County Saturday morning.

State Police indicate Norris was traveling eastbound on the Vermundy Road a quarter-mile west of Garrett Road when he drove off the roadway and overturned.

The Marion County Coroner  says the car was discovered in a soybean field by nearby residents just after seven Saturday morning.  He reports sheriff’s deputies found the body of Norris in the vehicle.

Cannon says the vehicle apparently rolled at least twice after failing to negotiate a curve in the roadway.  Norris was not restrained.

Cannon reports the crash is believed to have occurred sometime around midnight but was not discovered until dawn.