ALLEN PARK, Mich. (WJBK) -- We know the deep freeze is dangerous. Now it may have turned deadly claiming the life of a woman in Allen Park. Investigators believe the woman spent hours in the cold after wandering away from her home.
The elderly woman wasn't dressed for the weather. She was wearing a robe and slippers and collapsed in front of a house out of site from the people who live there. She laid in a ditch in the freezing cold until she died.
"It was an elderly lady. She was just in house clothes. She didn't have any kind of coat and she was in slippers. So it looked like what happened is she was wandering late in the dark and slipped in the ditch and tried to get out because one of her slippers was off," a woman explains.
A tragic discovery no one wants to make. Allen Park Police say late Wednesday morning, a man found the body of an elderly woman. She had wandered down Allen Road and into his yard.
Police say she was 87 years old.
"He was backing out of the driveway and he saw something in the ditch, and so when he took a closer look, he could see hair. So he knew that it was a body," the woman says.
The deceased's name and medical condition have not been released, but police confirm her family has been notified.
The ditch is not deep, but far enough off the road that she would've been difficult to see.
Tuesday night, metro Detroit faced subzero temperatures and the howls of the wind likely drowned out her last cries for help.
The bitter cold may have helped to preserve the crime scene. Perfectly kept footprints iced over from the cold gave police a break in the case.
"Thank goodness it was after the snowfall, so the police tracked the footprints and found that she lived back behind the church," the woman says.
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The 75-year-old grandmother charged with open murder in the shooting death of her own grandson could take the stand any day in her own defense, but Tuesday belonged to the prosecution.
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Nearly a hundred years ago, two girls from Detroit put a message in a bottle and threw it into the waters of the St. Clair River. Now that message is back on dry land after being found by a diver in 30 feet of water.
Nearly a hundred years ago, two girls from Detroit put a message in a bottle and threw it into the waters of the St. Clair River. Now that message is back on dry land after being found by a diver in 30 feet of water.
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In a surprising move, Tucker Cipriano pled no contest to murder in the beating death of his father. Cipriano made the plea just days before members of his own family were set to testify against him.
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Monday, June 10 2013 7:54 PM EDT2013-06-10 23:54:52 GMT
There's a special place in hell for people who steal from churches, and you can bet its not air conditioned, but it was the A/C unit that was targeted at Christian Road Ministries on Detroit's west side.
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After initially defying federal regulators, Chrysler abruptly agreed Tuesday to recall some older-model Jeeps with fuel tanks that could rupture and cause fires in rear-end collisions.
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An angry pastor is trying to keep his cool. He is mad at whoever tore apart his air conditioning unit to steal the copper, but he also says the entire community shares the blame.
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Nearly a hundred years ago, two girls from Detroit put a message in a bottle and threw it into the waters of the St. Clair River. Now that message is back on dry land after being found by a diver in 30 feet of water.
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The latest dig in the search for former Teamsters' boss Jimmy Hoffa will resume on Wednesday in an Oakland Township field. So far, crews have found two concrete slabs and animal bones.
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Detroit Metropolitan Airport officials evacuated a section of the McNamara Terminal Tuesday morning after a canine picked up the scent of explosives on the apron, where planes load.
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