Olivia Chutich death: Iowa State sorority student dies of excessive alcohol & hypothermia according to autopsy. Adopted daughter of state supreme court judge and CEO partner. Not a perfect child.
An Iowa State University student who was found dead in her sorority parking lot — was ruled to have died as a result of excessive drinking and exposure to the cold according to a released autopsy.
Olivia Chutich, 21 — the daughter of a Minnesota judge — was found lying in the parking lot of the Delta Delta Delta sorority shortly before 10 a.m. Jan 22, according to a Ames Police Department Facebook release.
The college junior is said to have been lying in the parking lot for hours in temperatures as low as 8 degrees before being discovered, the Ames Tribune reported.
An autopsy revealed that the communications studies major’s death was an accidental death caused by hypothermia and acute alcohol intoxication, police said.
Chutich was the daughter of Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Margaret Chutich and her wife, Allina Health CEO Penny Wheeler, according to the media outlet.
Adopted daughter remembered
She was born in Guatemala and adopted as an infant, her obituary said.
‘We weren’t perfect parents, and she wasn’t a perfect child, but we were a perfect match. And what a love story it was,’ her parents wrote.
‘A student at Iowa State, she was a proud member of the Tri-Delta sorority,’ the obituary continues. ‘Olivia had found her stride academically and socially, with a circle of supportive ‘sisters.’ She had eagerly anticipated returning to campus for the latter half of her COVID-influenced junior year. Olivia is surrounded by a wide circle of those who loved her beyond words.’
Chutich’s ‘vibrant spirit, heart-on-her-sleeve emotions, kindness, compassion, and glorious smile are remembered by all who crossed her path,’ the death notice read.
It remained unclear how the sorority student came to be so inebriated that she lost consciousness.
Police do not believe foul play was involved in the student’s death.
