SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say a California teen who went missing in South Lake Tahoe on New Year's Eve and was found near a snow bank died of hypothermia, but also had drugs in her system.
The El Dorado County Sheriff released autopsy results Monday in the death of 19-year-old Petaluma resident Alyssa Byrne. Officials list her cause of death as probably hypothermia, and said they found evidence of methamphetamine and multiple psychoactive drugs.
The teen had attended a music festival at a community college on New Year's Eve but disappeared afterward. A utility worker found her body near a snow bank a few days later.
Deputies say she may have tried to walk three miles in freezing weather to her hotel in Stateline, Nev. Authorities say her boot prints also suggested disorientation.
