Police are investigating the death of a 20-year-old student at the State University of New York at Oneonta who was found unconscious off campus on a bitterly cold morning, the school said Friday.
The Oneonta Police Department identified him as Tyler Lopresti-Castro, and said he was found by city employees on the pavement near a bus garage several miles from the college just before 7 a.m. Thursday, suffering from exposure to extreme cold.
He died that evening, according to a statement from the college.
The cause and circumstances leading up to the student’s death were being investigated by police, and the college was cooperating fully with local authorities, according to the statement.
Authorities said there were no signs of criminality at this point.
Police said a review of video from the garage and buses showed no sign on Lopresti-Castro on a city bus, that he came out of a wooded area behind the garage around 2:15 a.m. and may have climbed through some snow and crossed a drainage creek before coming onto city property.
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He had been last seen around midnight, police said, wearing a sweatshirt and jeans and possibly walking on city streets.
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Temperatures early Thursday in Oneonta dropped from minus 10 (minus 23 Celsius) at 2 a.m. to a low of minus 14 (minus 25 Celsius) at 6:50 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.
“This is a very sad time for SUNY Oneonta. Our campus community is mourning the loss of one of our own, and we are focused on providing support to the student’s family and friends,” according to the statement.
Classes began Wednesday at the college about 65 miles west of Albany.
The college said it was offering grief and counseling services for its roughly 6,000 students, as well as to faculty and staff. The statement said the school also had been in touch with the student’s family to offer support.
