The Grand Rapids area is mourning another loss in their public safety community. Sarah Grell, 39, died in the line of duty on Monday.

She'd been a conservation officer with the DNR since 2005, according to the agency.

Longtime fishing guide Tom Neustrom remembers meeting her for the first time. "It was on Wabana Lake. She engaged really well, big smile, no attitude," he said.

They had a nice chat. "I was very impressed. I'm a big person on first impressions, and I was impressed with her," Neustrom recalled. He also knows her father, who was a conservation officer as well.

Over the years, they'd meet here and there on the lakes. "I wish every warden on the water was like her," he said.

So he and many others were heartbroken to hear she died on Monday. "It's so sad, she had young children. And she was only 39-years-old," Neustrom said. "She always left you with the feeling that you were checked out by someone who really cared about the outdoors."

Members of the law enforcement community escorted her home on Tuesday afternoon from the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's office.

Funeral arrangements are pending. 

The DNR lost another conservation officer two years ago, when Gene Wynn died.

And the Rapids fire department lost one of their own, Jim Gibeau, two months ago.

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