DEKALB COUNTY — A man raised in Indiana was among those killed in a helicopter crash in Kenya over the weekend.
Kyle John Forti has been identified him as one of the American tourists who died when their helicopter crashed in the Central Island National Park on Kenya's northern border.
The US Embassy identified two others as Anders Asher Jesiah Burke and Brandon Howe Stapper. The pilot of the helicopter, Mario Magonga, was also killed.
READ | These are the Americans killed in the Kenya helicopter crash
Kyle was raised in Dekalb County and would have turned 30 in August. He leaves behind a 5-year-old son and a wife, Hope, who is pregnant with their second child. The couple were also foster parents to four other children.
Hope told CNN that Kyle was a political consultant who always had a way of bringing out the best in people.
"I feel like we became one, because of the way he loved me and communicated with me. He thought life comes through relationships," she told CNN. "He did that with hundreds and hundreds of people that understood that from him, (that's why) we're so surrounded with love right now."
The two met in high school, when Hope decided to add Kyle as a friend on Facebook.
"I thought he was lovely and cute and thought right away 'this is going to be it,'" she said. They had been together since then, for 12 years. She said she last talked to him a day before the crash, and had felt uneasy about him going on the trip.
"I never know if that's me just being a homebody or stressed or nervous," she said. Before he left, she and their son crafted a note for Kyle and hid it secretly in his luggage, to remind him they loved him, she said.
Kyle Forti was in Kenya to spend time with Burke, who had recently purchased land in Kenya and invited friends out for a visit, Hope said.
