Tyler Lopresti-Castro SUNY Oneonta student freezes to death walking in minus 14 weather in upstate New York. Was drinking a factor?
An upstate New York college student has died after walking in below zero temperatures. The victim was found unconscious outside a city bus garage after temperatures dropping below -14 degrees overnight.
Tyler Lopresti-Castro, 20, of East Greenbush, New York, a junior studying professional accounting at SUNY Oneonta was found lying outside the Oneonta Public Transit Central Garage near the intersection if 1-88 and Route 205 by two transit employees around 6.50am on Thursday according to the Oneonta Police Department.
‘[He] did not appear to be dressed for the cold,’ Oneonta Police Chief Christopher Witzenburg said at a Friday press briefing. He was only clad in a sweatshirt and jeans and suffered from ‘extended exposure to extremely cold, subzero temperatures.’
Emergency workers did ‘every possible thing they could do to resuscitate him,’ Otsego County Coroner Terry Knapp told ABC News, but the 20-year-old was pronounced dead soon afterward at A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital.
He was identified using his student ID. Cops said Lopresti-Castro had sufferred from exposure to the extreme, sub-zero temperatures. Police have not yet said if alcohol was a factor.
How did student come to be so ill prepared for weather?
Lopresti-Castro was seen on surveillance footage emerging from a wooded area behind the Northeast corner of the garage around 2.15 am.
He was about three-and-a-half miles away from SUNY Oneonta, and police believe he was walking to his residence off-campus, about three miles away.
‘There’s a drainage culvert there, we believe that he got very cold and wet from crossing through the drainage culvert and some pretty deep snow,’ Witzenburg said.
Temperatures early Thursday in Oneonta dropped from -10 at 2 am to -14 at 6.50 am, as the next day’s powerful Nor’easter brewed over the East Coast, according to the National Weather Service.
He was last seen by other people at midnight on January 27, but police are looking to determine where the student was between then and when he appeared on surveillance footage at 2.15am.
Witzenburg said, ‘there has been no indication of criminality up to this point.’
The semester at SUNY Oneonta had just begun the day prior and there had been revelries involved with fraternities.
Was death linked to fraternity activities?
Lisa Miller, a SUNY Oneonta spokeswoman, told ABC that the school has no evidence that the student’s death was fraternity-related, and isn’t currently investigating any students.
‘This is a very sad time for SUNY Oneonta,’ university officials said in a statement, obtained by News10.
‘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. Our hearts go out to them, and we are providing whatever assistance we can to help them during this difficult time.’
Lopresti-Castro, nicknamed ‘T-Lo’ by his friends, was remembered in tributes for his kindness and goofy personality.
‘He was so loved by everyone because he was JUST LOVE. He loved to make people laugh, and he didn’t like to leave anyone out,’ wrote his aunt, Lisa Ann Carey, on Facebook.
‘This was NEVER the ending!! It was ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS supposed to be him telling jokes and doing a dance on MY grave, (Tyler always knew how to make me laugh even when I was trying to send him to his room) that was always supposed to be the end. And I don’t know right now how I go on without him.’
College student remembered
Lopresti-Castro was a member of the school’s track and field team during the 2019-2020 year, according to SUNY Oneonta’s athletic roster. Columbia High School, where he ran track before college, also paid tribute to him on Facebook.
‘Tyler LoPresti, Always in our hearts. You will never be forgotten in the halls of Columbia or with all your brought to Columbia Athletics,’ the post read.
‘You made a huge impact in our community, family. May you rest now and hopes you are running all PRs Prayers to the LoPresti family during this difficult time… Once a Blue Devil Always a Blue Devil.’
A GoFundMe initiative for the student’s surviving mother and stepfather has raised more than $32,000 as at time of publishing.
