A family outing at Lake Koocanusa ended in tragedy on July 26, 2023, when 40-year-old Eric Ray Newman of Bend, Oregon, was fatally shot at the Rexford Bench boat launch near Rexford. Newman and his family had been on the water that day; he was preparing to remove a rented boat from the lake in the late afternoon when a verbal argument began with another man.

Lincoln County authorities say the altercation escalated as Newman was backing his vehicle down the boat ramp and that the other man, identified as 51-year-old Christopher Foster of Kalispell, produced a handgun and shot Newman. Newman’s wife and their three young children witnessed the shooting. Responding officers found Newman deceased and later located Foster in his vehicle with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound; both men were pronounced dead at the scene. The Sheriff’s Office described the incident as a murder-suicide, and investigators are awaiting Foster’s toxicology results as they work to establish a motive.

If anyone was at the Rexford Bench boat launch that afternoon or has information about interactions between the two men before the shooting, please come forward with what was seen or heard.