A 62-year-old man found dead on the South Side near a CTA Red Line train stop died from cold exposure, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
An autopsy performed Friday determined that Zachary Armistead died from a combination of complications of hypothermia and environmental cold exposure and the death was ruled an accident.
Armistead was found unresponsive in the first block of West 69th Street in the Grand Crossing neighborhood on Thursday morning, according to authorities. He was taken to the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, the medical examiner’s office said.
A Chicago police spokesperson did not immediately have any further details of the incident.
Hypothermia is a condition in which the body’s core temperature falls below 95 degrees. The death would be the fifth cold-related death since the beginning of the year, according to county records.
The start of the new year has seen recurring snowfall that has slowed or stalled road and air traffic and, at times, extreme cold that has shuttered schools and canceled public events.
