An unidentified woman died this week after police found her in a north St. Louis alley, but authorities say it’s too soon to tell if her death was caused by cold exposure.
Police found the woman Monday morning near the city’s Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood as temperatures dropped to near zero. She later died at a hospital. VOP News STL first reported the development.
According to the city’s medical examiner’s office, an investigation that will determine how the woman died will take eight to 12 weeks.
The city has extended its cold-weather “Code Blue” response through the end of the week, making hundreds of emergency beds available at shelters throughout St. Louis. The city activates its highest-level Code Blue plan when temperatures fall to 10 degrees or lower.
Temperatures are expected to dip into the single digits overnight through Sunday.
Mayor Cara Spencer said Thursday that clearing roads and protecting vulnerable people are the city’s two highest priorities following last weekend’s snowstorm. She said no one has been turned away from a shelter bed.
“We have roughly doubled the capacity over last year for winter weather emergency beds. This has been enormously successful during [this] Code Blue,” Spencer said. “We have not had to turn away anyone. “
During Code Blue, the city also operates shuttles that stop at “rally points” throughout the city to transport people to overnight shelters. Spencer said the focus on getting people to shelters has meant fewer fires in vacant buildings.
The area where the woman was found is less than a mile from the Wellston Loop Community Development Corporation, a drop-in shelter and community aid group that provides care to people experiencing homelessness and poverty on the city’s northwest side.
Kim Jayne, the organization’s director, said the city’s response has improved compared with years before, noting warming buses and shuttles are more present in the neighborhood.
But Jayne and other workers at the organization have been fighting for an overnight emergency shelter in the area. During the latest Code Blue activation, the city provided walk-up shelters near downtown, in the Hyde Park neighborhood and at three locations in south St. Louis.
“It's not easy to go to other neighborhoods for a lot of different reasons, and there's nothing near here, it’s miles away,” Jayne said, adding that the neighborhood has a high percentage of people with disabilities. “It would be nice to have a permanent overnight shelter, but God help us, we’ve got to have something in the winter.”
According to the medical examiner’s office, the city has not yet tallied any cold-related deaths this year.
Spencer effusively praised the city's streets, health and fire departments for their response to the storm, which dropped around 10 inches of snow on St. Louis, but said the city is still working on clearing some side streets and residential areas.
City officials said residents should contact the Citizens Service Bureau to report if their street still needs clearing.
