Homeless men freeze to death on Christmas after night outdoors, Georgia coroner says
Two homeless men froze to death after a night outdoors on Christmas, a Georgia coroner says.
Manuel Foster, 63, and Larry Howard, 61, both died of hypothermia in Macon, Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones told multiple news outlets.
The men sought refuge — Foster under an Interstate-75 overpass and Howard in an abandoned apartment — at a time when local shelters say COVID-19 restrictions have forced them to turn people away, WXGA reported.
It’s unclear when the men were found, or who found them.
Macon saw a high temperature of 45 degrees and a low of 31 degrees on Christmas Eve, according to AccuWeather. The high temperature on Christmas Day reached 55 but plummeted to a chilling low of 26.
“I wake up in the morning and check my phone every morning to see what the weather is because I fear how our people are responding in the cold,” Sister Theresa Sullivan of the DePaul USA Daybreak Center told WMAZ. “We must continue. We must continue to figure out how we can address these issues even in the midst of obstacles.”
The center has provided blankets and gloves to the homeless during the pandemic, according to the news station.
Jones said it’s been five or six years since something like this has happened in the Macon area, WGXA reported.
McClatchy News reached out to the Macon-Bibb Coroner’s Office for more information and is awaiting a response.
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 2:28 PM.