By Tim Leeds/Havre Daily News/tleeds@havredailynews.com
The FBI is investigating the death Thursday of a man in the jail on Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation.
Dan Vierthaler, the FBI's eastern Montana supervisor in Billings, said Robert Rotzler, 44, died at the jail but declined to comment further.
Earlier in the day, Rotzler had been in a car accident about a half-mile east of Rocky Boy High School, said Myron Oats, tribal public safety director.
Rotzler was prounced dead at the Rocky Boy Medical Center, according to Oats, who declined to comment further.
Winona Denny, Rotzler's fiancee, said Rotzler was arrested and jailed after the car crash.
Denny said she and Rotzler had moved to Rocky Boy from Alaska in June.
"We were going to be married in the near future," she said. "He was just a real good person. I just feel so blessed and happy that I was able to know him in the last few months of his life."
She said Rotzler had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and suicidal tendencies. He had shown her a bottle of cyanide he carried to take if he was ever arrested, she said.
Denny said Rotzler was half Eskimo, a quarter German and a quarter Swede, and was proud of his Eskimo heritage.
They met when he asked her if she was an American Indian, and if she knew anything about sweat lodges, Denny said.
"He loved those, too," she said.
He had worked at many jobs, including taking care of elderly people in California, working as a grant writer in Alaska and working on the oil rigs in Alaska, she said.
"He also was a carpenter," she added. "He was good at everything he did."
Denny said Rotzler had made some friends on the reservation, including members of her family and people from an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting he had helped start and from the Native American Church at the reservation.
She said Rotzler loved children and animals. He bought a kite so he could fly it for children to watch, she said.
A few days ago, Denny read aloud some letters Rotzler had written to her, and he said he remembered writing them. She read them again this morning, she said.
"I'll never be able to find anybody to replace Robert," Denny said.
