A upstate New York college student has died after he was found unconscious outside a city bus garage when temperatures dropped below -14 degrees.
Tyler Lopresti-Castro, 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.
He was last seen on surveillance footage emerging from a wooded area behind the Northeast corner of the garage around 2.15 am.
‘[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.
Police have not yet said if alcohol was a factor.
SUNY Oneonta junior Tyler Lopresti-Castro, 20 (right), was found frozen to death last Thursday morning about five miles from campus
Lopresti-Castro, a junior studying professional accounting, was found outside the Oneonta Public Transit Building by two transit employees around 6.50 am (pictured)
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, 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.
Lopresti-Castro was last seen at midnight last Thursday, and captured on surveillance footage near the Oneonta Public Transit building around 2.15 am. He was found suffering from exposure around at 6.50 am the next morning
Witzenburg said, ‘there has been no indication of criminality up to this point.’
The semester at SUNY Oneonta had just begun the day prior.
It is unclear whether Lopresti-Castro had been drinking the night before, and DailyMail.com could not obtain a comment from the Oneonta Police Department or the Otsego County Coroner’s office at press time.
However, it was rush week for SUNY Oneonta’s Greek organizations at the time of the student’s death.
‘At this point I don’t have any reason to believe that there was fraternity involvement,’ Witzenburg said.
‘That’s something that we’re open to, but we can’t speculate at this time.’
‘Generally speaking, people that are rushing aren’t typically going through like the pledges do. This is more social time.’
SUNY Oneonta (campus pictured) said in a statement that ‘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’
Lisa Miller, a SUNY Oneonta spokeswoman, told ABC that the school has no evidence that the death was fraternity-related, and isn’t currently investigating any students.
‘This is a very sad time for SUNY Oneonta,’ the university said in a statement.
‘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 a member of the school’s track and field team during the 2019-2020 year, according to SUNY Oneonta’s athletic roster.
Since it was launched by his classmates on Saturday, a GoFundMe initiative for the student’s surviving mother and stepfather has raised more than $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,’ wrote organizer Jayden Torelli.