Published: 07:50 BST, 13 August 2026 | Updated: 09:52 BST, 13 August 2026<\/p>\n
An Adelaide father has spoken about the horrifying moment he discovered his newlywed son had been killed in a workplace incident on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Max Parkin said he realised something must have happened to his 26-year-old son Josh when he did not return home to complete Tuesday night's census.<\/p>\n
Early the next morning, a worried Mr Parkin decided to drive up to Josh's worksite in Charleston, near Lobethal in the Adelaide Hills, and tragically found his son's body where it had been all night.<\/p>\n
It's understood Josh had been operating a large tree chipper in the lead-up to his death, with the machine having technical problems he tried to fix.<\/p>\n
'His dad went and found him,' Josh's mum Tanya Thomson told The Advertiser.<\/p>\n
'I reckon for the next two hours, I was just walking around the house repeating the word "No, no, no, no, no, no."'<\/p>\n
'We've all been waiting to wake up from this nightmare for the last two days.'<\/p>\n
Ms Thomson, who also had to go to the worksite to identify his body, described her beloved son as 'empathetic to a fault.'<\/p>\n
Josh Parkin, 26, has been identified as the man killed in a workplace incident in the Adelaide Hills on Tuesday<\/p>\n
His concerned father found his body at his worksite in Charleston on Wednesday morning\u00a0<\/p>\n
Josh had just married his high school sweetheart Mekayla Jane in April<\/p>\n
'He had a fantastic work ethic, which ended up costing him his life. He was quirky, funny, loving. He just loved people \u2013 he would give anyone the shirt off his back,' she said.<\/p>\n
'I\u2019m hoping that I just get to touch his skin one last time. That's all I want.'\u00a0<\/p>\n
The tragedy came just months after Josh married his high school sweetheart Mekayla Jane.\u00a0<\/p>\n