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Coroner IDs Tornado Victim Who Died In His Van

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May 23, 2008 5:57 pm US/Mountain

Coroner IDs Tornado Victim Who Died In His Van

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GREELEY, Colo. (AP/CBS4) ― Pete Ambrose, caretaker of the Missile Park campground near Greeley, watched in awe as a massive tornado took shape a half-mile away Thursday. It landed on top of a dairy, then took a frightening turn toward him.

A frightened camper, Oscar Michael Manchester, hopped into his RV, apparently thinking he could outrun the twister.

"I yelled at him to come with me and he tried to drive off," a despondent Ambrose said after emerging from his shelter, a cinderblock restroom.

Manchester lay dead in the front seat of his RV. The rear half of the vehicle rested about 100 feet away.

Ambrose took shelter in a restroom at the campground.

"I yelled at him as best you can yell with the wind howling and the branches falling," he said. "He kind of nodded like he was going to follow me, but I think probably by the time I got to the restroom about 100 away, he might have been caught on the fringe of the tornado there."

Ambrose's pet died in the tornado and his home was destroyed.

Manchester told friends he was a Vietnam veteran. He lived in the RV.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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