P4Z-0hy22ZRyqh5IUeLwjcY3L_M

P4Z-0hy22ZRyqh5IUeLwjcY3L_M
MEAN STREETS MEDIA

Friday, January 4, 2013

RENO ( Sad News - Body of missing girl found behind snow bank ) Alyssa Byrne UPDATE

Related Content

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The search for a missing 19-year-old California woman who disappeared on New Year's Eve at Lake Tahoe ended Friday when her body was found behind a snow bank about a mile from the site of a music festival she attended that night, authorities said.
Alyssa Byrne of Petaluma may have tried to walk three miles in freezing weather to the hotel where she was staying, and became disoriented or lost, Douglas County Undersheriff Paul Howell said. Her body was found along a road.
The cause of death has not yet been determined, but neither foul play nor suicide is suspected, he said.
Howell noted other concertgoers decided to walk back to a hotel in Stateline, a tourist destination on Lake Tahoe's south shore, because there were long lines for shuttle buses.
Nighttime temperatures have plunged to zero in the area in the past week, with daytime highs still well below freezing.
"If exposed to the elements you could succumb to that," Howell told The Associated Press. "We won't speculate on that (hypothermia) as the cause of death, but we're hoping to get an answer from the autopsy."
The autopsy also will determine whether alcohol or drugs were a factor, he said.
Byrne's disappearance prompted a dayslong effort by search and rescue teams, friends and family members who posted fliers and urged anyone with information on her whereabouts to come forward.
Byrne's father, Kevin Byrne, issued a statement Friday thanking those who helped.
"Our entire family is devastated," the statement said. "We were still holding out hope that she would be found safe. We will miss Alyssa and she will be in our hearts forever."
Chanel Kelly, a friend who was on the New Year's Eve trip in Tahoe, told reporters outside the Byrne home in Petaluma that the tragedy is everybody's worst nightmare.
"At the end of the day she's always responsible and safe, but this is one time that she wasn't," Kelly said.
Byrne worked as a hostess at Cattlemens restaurant in Petaluma, about 40 miles north of San Francisco, and was taking classes at Santa Rosa Junior College's Petaluma campus to become a firefighter/paramedic.

1 comment: