ASHEVILLE, N.C., June 8 (UPI) -- A woman who died after being struck by lightning was hiking up a North Carolina mountain where her boyfriend says he intended to propose.
Thunderstorms rolled through the Ashville area Friday and a bolt struck Bethany Lott as she watched lightning in the sky atop Max Patch Bald with Richard Butler, the Ashville Citizen-Times reported Tuesday.
"She said, 'God, baby, look how beautiful it is,'" Butler said.
When he turned to her, Butler said, he saw Lott lying on the hill.
"She was probably 5 feet in front of me, so given the incline she was a good bit higher than me, but it jumped to me," Butler said.
"She didn't say anything, and I turned around and she was laying a few feet away, and I crawled to her," he told the newspaper. "I did CPR for probably 15 minutes and the whole time was trying her cellphone, but I couldn't get anything out."
Butler sustained second-degree burns, but said he didn't realize he was hit at first.
"I was spun 180 degrees and thrown several feet back," he said. "My legs turned to Jell-O, my shoes were smoking and the bottom of my feet felt like they were on fire."
Emergency personnel arrived about an hour after Lott was hit. As they worked to revive her, Butler said he placed the engagement ring on her finger.
"They are listing me as her fiance in the obituaries," he said.
