News
Woman Found Dead In The Snow
By: Susan Tebben | The Athens Messenger
Posted on:
Monday's frigid temperatures apparently played a role in the death of an Athens woman after she was found frozen in the snow by a passerby.
Emergency dispatchers received a call at around 9 a.m. from a male who said he was driving through Knollwood Court in the Knollwood Trailer Park near Route 50 when he saw a female in a yard that appeared to have been beaten, according to a post on the Athens County Sheriff's Office's Facebook page.
Deputies responded and found 45-year-old Teresa Goode lying in front of a residence on Knollwood Court. Det. Lt. Jack Taylor, Lt. Aaron Maynard and Det. Brice Fick responded as well as a representative from the Athens County Coroner's Office who pronounced Goode dead at the scene.
"She was laying…just like she'd laid down asleep in the snow," Sheriff Patrick Kelly said. "It looks like she pretty much froze to death."
Kelly said the woman had an envelope with a letter in her hand and deputies are investigating whether she may have been upset about the contents of the letter.
Law enforcement is treating the death as a homicide until all circumstances have been considered, but no foul play is suspected, Kelly said.
"Scrapes" on the body were consistent with a fall, but an autopsy and toxicology were ordered by the coroner, the report stated.
Family members residing in Columbus were notified of the death.