Man fights to bring brother's body home from Cameroon

Bill Fitzpatrick's body has remained in the cockpit of his wrecked airplane in the mountainous jungles of southwest Cameroon for at least a month since its discovery.

Despite his brother's best efforts to retrieve it, there is little prospect of it being returned soon to the United States.

Last June, Fitzpatrick took off from Kano, Nigeria, en route to Douala, Cameroon, for his work with African Parks, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of wildlife in the continent. Fitzpatrick was charged with aiding the anti-poaching movement by spotting animal carcasses or groups of illegal hunters.

His final destination on this trip was to be Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo, but his plane went down in the Bakossi Mountains in western Cameroon. Because the area is so remote - Fitzpatrick's brother, Ken, a Ridgefield resident, estimates it's about a 30-mile hike from the nearest village - he remained missing until April 10, when a group of hunters stumbled across the wreckage.

Why the plane went down is a mystery.

Finding Bill Fitzpatrick was hard, but bringing him home is proving to be even harder. African Parks, which is based in Johannesburg, South Africa, has said it cannot remove the body on its own and is waiting for Cameroonian officials to assist in the recovery. The organization's plan is to eventually hand the body over to U.S. diplomats.

"It's an absolute travesty," Ken Fitzpatrick said. "I'm sure there's nothing left of him."

Fitzpatrick has tried without success to get help in bringing his brother home. He said the U.S. State Department has told him it's having bureaucratic problems with the Cameroonian government, and one Cameroonian official didn't seem too concerned about the body remaining where it is in a statement quoted by The Associated Press.

"Rest assured that Bill's remains have been conserved and still sit on the pilot's seat with the clothes he was wearing," said Quetong Hardison, whom the AP identified as an official in southwest Cameroon.

Fitzpatrick said this suggests his brother's body is in a safe and protected environment, which is "a bunch of baloney."

Fitzpatrick has offered to travel to the site himself, but the State Department has prevented him from doing so because of the potential dangers of the local Boko Haram terrorist organization.

Whether the crash resulted from terrorist activity is "the million-dollar question," Fitzpatrick said.

Anti-poaching pilots often become targets for those working in the black market, because they pose the biggest threat to their business. Agencies like African Parks have tried to combat that by offering to pay hunters more for providing security than they could make poaching, but haven't always been successful.

Ken Fitzpatrick has pleaded with American officials, diplomats and even Bill and Chelsea Clinton on Twitter before their recent trip to Africa. Nothing has worked.

Now he's calling on the public to aid the process. He set up a website called findbillfitzpatrick.com where people can hear more about Bill and his story and donate to a Give Forward account that Ken hopes will aid his brother's return.

As of Tuesday night, it was only $250 shy of its $11,000 goal.

"I'm contacting senators, I've tweeted a gazillion people," Fitzpatrick said. "All I'm looking for is for the word to get out. I feel like I'm handcuffed."

Fitzpatrick would like to have the matter resolved by June 5 when the oldest of Bill's three children will graduate from high school in Chelan, Wash. Bill's wife, Paula, is worried that may not happen.

"She's a basket case," Fitzpatrick said.