University Student freezes to death in Vermont

A student at the University of Vermont was found dead in the snow yesterday, becoming the second student to die in a week in frigid temperatures.

The 19-year-old student, identified on Sunday as Connor Gage of Little Falls, New York, was apparently cutting through the parking lot during the early morning hours on Saturday when he was stopped by a fence.

The Burlington Police Department said in a news release that authorities responded to a business in Burlington around 10:48 a.m. to a report of “an unresponsive male lying in the snow in the back parking lot of a business.”

First responders attempted to resuscitate the 19-year-old “without success,” and pronounced him dead at the scene.

“Exposure to cold seems to have been a cause or significant contributing factor,” police said.

The temperature was between minus 1 degree and negative 4 degrees at the time, police said.

The National Weather Service’s Burlington Office said the temperature dipped to minus 5 degrees on Saturday, which was the coldest temperature on Groundhog Day since 1993 when it hit negative 8 degrees.

Burlington Police said that the bitter cold, along with “clothing that was inadequate to the weather,” is believed to have contributed to the man’s death.