Michael Patrick Zimny

An Illinois man has been charged with felony battery after he critically injured a Columbia City woman during an argument over a clothes dryer at Jellystone Campground, Pierceton.

Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department deputies and emergency personnel responded to the campground at 11 a.m. Sunday to a laundry/restroom facility at Jellystone, located at 1916 N. 200 North. There, they found the 24-year-old victim severely battered. She was transported by paramedics from the scene in critical condition.

During the investigation, detectives were provided preliminary information that the woman had entered into the laundry area where a confrontation ensued over the use of one operable clothes dryer unit. Michael Patrick Zimny, 54, of Glenwood, Ill., allegedly struck the woman in the front temple area of her skull. She fell unconscious as she attempted to return to her camp site.

KCSD officers located and arrested Zimny on a preliminary charge of felony aggravated battery with substantial risk of death. Zimny is currently being held without bond on a prosecutorial hold by the Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office.

The Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department was assisted by the Pierceton Fire Department, Multi-Township EMS and the Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office.