People freezing to death.
O Fortuna!
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20081222/GPG0101/81222109/1207/GPG01
2 state men die in bitter cold By Eric Litke
Gannett Wisconsin MediaHINGHAM -- A Sheboygan County man who would have turned 59 on Christmas Day froze to death over the weekend after his SUV veered off the road in a snowstorm less than a mile from his home, according to the Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Department.
The body of Bobby Lewin, of N2560 Sheboygan County CC in the town of Lima, was found about 8:15 a.m. today in a field about 750 feet from his Chevy Trailblazer, Capt. Dave Adams said. He crashed in white-out conditions on Highway CC in the town of Holland, about a mile south of Hingham.
Lewin was last seen Saturday night, when he finished a nearly 11-hour shift at Cascade Cheese Co. and punched out at 8:37 p.m., company accountant Mike Zastrow said. Zastrow and owner Keith Babbler started looking for Lewin about 10 a.m. Sunday after Lewin’s mother alerted them he never made it home.
Lewin lives on his parents’ property in a separate home, Babbler said.
Zastrow and Babbler spent the rest of Sunday morning and much of the afternoon driving routes Lewin could have taken home.
Zastrow found the unoccupied Trailblazer just north of Dekker Road about 5 p.m. after checking a route further south when Lewin’s mother, Betty Lewin, suggested he may have stopped in Adell for gas.
“I knew it wasn’t good,” Zastrow said. “There’s a house right next to it that I ran up to. They didn’t see anything. There was nothing I could do at that point. The drifts were up to the hood of my truck on that road.”
Betty Lewin contacted the sheriff’s department about 6:30 p.m. Sunday, and deputies interviewed neighbors but were unable to conduct a full-scale search due to the weather, Adams said.
One of the deputies returned to the area this morning and found Bobby Lewin’s body in a field northeast of his SUV. Adams said it is unclear why he ventured into the field, as his home was north of the crash site.
Snow, wind and fog obscured visibility Saturday night around the time Bobby Lewin would have been traveling home, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures plunged from 23 degrees when he left work to below zero in the early morning hours Sunday, with wind chills of 25 below.
The coroner ruled cause of death as exposure, Adams said. Bobby Lewin was found wearing multiple layers of clothing and a red winter jacket.
His coworkers recalled him as a kind and dedicated employee.
“He was really a good-hearted fellow,” Babbler said. “He’d stop and help somebody if they got in trouble. More than once he’s done that.”
He said Bobby Lewin — a general laborer primarily responsible for feeding cheese into a cooker — was the longest-tenured of the cheese company’s 25 employees. He was there when Babbler bought the company 24 years ago.
“He came to work whenever he was asked to — he did his part,” Zastrow said.
Said Babbler: “It’s just really a sad day for us.”Newspaper delivery man dies in cold
A 54-year-old Wisconsin State Journal delivery man died after his car got stuck in a Green County snowdrift at about 2:30 a.m. Sunday.
Sheriff’s officials say Donald Blum of Monticello was found conscious outside his car after he apparently started to walk to town.
County Coroner Jan Perry says he died early today of hypothermia resulting in heart failure.
