AMELIA COUNTY, Va. -- In a tragic farming accident, 30-year-old Dustin Arthur died when he suffocated in an Amelia grain elevator Tuesday.
Friends remember him as hard working and say he died living his dream.
"It’s really sad how short life can be,” said Jamie Murray on Wednesday. “They say the good die young. It's definitely the case here."
Fighting back the pain of a gut-wrenching reality, Murray spoke about her friend Dustin, a man she considered family.
Dustin Arthur
"My kids called him uncle Dustin,” said Murray. “Just a complete shock. My boys’ bunkbeds were just built by him two weeks ago and my son said he has something to remember him by."
Arthur, a plant manager at the Featherstone Farm in Amelia County, was working with a harness above a silo of soybeans when he tragically fell in Tuesday night.
Emergency crews tried bleeding the silo, but it was too late.
"Anybody that knew him, loved him,” Murray said. “He was one-in-a-million and the world lost the most amazing person I have ever met."
Dustin Arthur
A steady farm hand, Arthur was known for his work ethic and his passion for the pasture.
Murray said Arthur often talked about wanting a wife and raising children, which was one goal in life, he didn't get to meet.
"The one thing in life that made him happy was farming,” she said. “He loved to know that he was feeding America. He loved animals and nature and farming gave him the best of both worlds."
His body was taken to the Medical Examiner's Office where a cause of death will be determined.
Funeral arrangements are still being confirmed.
