A 20-year-old student at SUNY Oneonta was found frozen to death outside of a bus garage on Thursday morning when temperatures dropped below -10 degrees, officials said.
Tyler Lopresti-Castro was found by Oneonta city employees around 6:50 am on Thursday morning, laying unconscious on the pavement near a bus garage near I-88, according to the Oneonta Police Department.
He was identified by his student ID, and was suffering from exposure to the extreme, sub-zero temperatures, cops said. Police and Fire EMS responded to the scene and began treatment. He was transported to Fox Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Surveillance footage from the bus garage shows Lopresti-Castro “emerged from a wooded area behind the garage at about 2:15 am”
An investigation revealed that the college student may have walked off of the roadway near the intersection of I-88 and Route 205 before crossing a drainage creek before he arrived in the area of the garage.
According to the National Weather Service, temperatures early Thursday in Oneonta dropped from -10 at 2 am to -14 at 6:50 am
Police said he was last seen around midnight on January 27th. Police are seeking the public’s help to piece together where Lopresti-Castro was between midnight and 2:15 am when he appeared on the surveillance camera.
Police said, “there has been no indication of criminality up to this point.”
SUNY Oneonta said Lopresti-Castro was a junior working towards a degree in accounting. He is listed on the 2019-20 roster for men’s track and field, according to the school’s athletics site.
Students had just returned to school for a new semester. Wednesday was the first day of classes.
“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,” university officials said in a statement, obtained by News10. “Our hearts go out to them, and we are providing whatever assistance we can to help them during this difficult time.”
The school said it will be offering counseling services for all its roughly 6,000 students as well as for faculty and staff members.
friends launched a GoFundMe page to support Lopresti-Castro’s mother and step-father that has raised over $30,000.
“Tyler left an impact on every person he met by giving so much love and support. We believe it is time to pass that on to the people that need it most in his life, his family,” his friends who started the campaign wrote.