Yorktown teen from fatal stump grinder accident identified

HARTFORD CITY —  A Yorktown teenager was killed Saturday in a work-related accident in Blackford County.

Cody Bronnenberg, 18, was pronounced dead at the scene — a property along Blackford County Road 200-N east of Ind. 3 — by Blackford County Coroner Tod Waters.

According to Blackford County Sheriff Jeff Sones, Bronnenberg was working with his uncle, who has a tree service, when the teen stumbled while moving logs and fell into a hydraulic stump grinder being operated by his uncle.

Authorities were called to the scene at 4:39 p.m. and found the victim, already deceased, "tangled in the stump grinder," the sheriff said in a release.

Waters said the teen had suffered "multiple traumatic injuries."

Along with Sones and Waters, Blackford County deputies, Hartford City police, I.U Health Blackford Community Hospital EMS and Hartford City Fire-Rescue personnel responded at the scene.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. You can also follow him on Twitter: @DouglasWalkerSP.