Official: Byrne’s footprints point to hypothermia or intoxication
By Mary Callahan, Santa Rosa Press Democrat
A 19-year-old Petaluma woman found dead in the snow near South Lake Tahoe appeared to have taken a wrong turn on New Year’s Eve and wandered through the snow a short distance before shedding her winter jacket and coming to rest behind a snow bank, authorities said Monday.
Alyssa Byrne was found dead three days later, her boot prints the only ones in the vicinity. The pattern of the footprints suggested disorientation that may have been caused by alcohol consumption, hypothermia, or both, an El Dorado County sheriff’s official said.
“I don’t want to speculate,” sheriff’s Lt. Pete Van Arnum said, though he confirmed authorities have received reports that Byrne had been drinking while in town with friends for an outdoor music festival.
He also noted that advanced hypothermia causes confusion and deteriorating cognition. Victims can become disoriented and lose judgment.
“It was subzero that night and, depending on how long she was out in the cold, that could have affected her,” Van Arnum said.
Experts say it’s common for those with fatal hypothermia to remove clothing shortly before death because of physiological changes that cause a spreading sense of warmth.
Byrne was attending the three-day SnowGlobe Music Festival at Lake Tahoe Community College when she died late New Year’s Eve or early the next morning.
She had driven to Lake Tahoe the previous Saturday with three friends and was sharing a room with them at the Horizon hotel-casino Stateline.
But on New Year’s Eve she got ahead of her friends in a concert crowd and suddenly disappeared about 11pm, telling a friend by cell phone 30 minutes later that she was taking a shuttle bus back to the hotel. They never saw her again, despite earlier reports of saying they had.
On Friday morning, a South Tahoe Public Utility District worker perched atop an elevated truck peered over a 4-foot snow bank and spotted her lifeless body about a half-mile from the college campus.
Byrne was lying about 10 feet off Pioneer Trail, between Al Tahoe Boulevard, which leads to the college campus, and Black Bart Trail, the opposite direction of the hotel.
Authorities said long shuttle bus lines may have caused her to join others who elected to walk back to Stateline — an approximately 4-mile route that would have followed Al Tahoe Boulevard and then turned left along Pioneer Trail, headed northeast. It also is possible she walked through the campus instead of taking a paved path used by others, Van Arnum said.
But her final location indicated she turned right on Pioneer Trail, rather then left, crossed the road, and walked along the road a ways before climbing over a 4-foot berm of frozen snow pushed off the roadway, Van Arnum said.
Her boot prints were visible coming over the berm and heading southwest for about 100 yards along the back side of the snowbank, he said.
“It looked like she was kind of disoriented from the footprints. They kind of wandered a bit,” he said.
She was fully clothed when she died except for her white ski jacket, which was found a short distance away, he said.
Investigators hope a forensic autopsy scheduled Tuesday in Sacramento will shed some light on what happened.
A full toxicology panel would automatically be included, but will be an important investigative tool in Byrne’s case. The toxicology tests will be run through an independent lab and could take a full month, Van Arnum said.
As previously noted, why would anyone, any promoter of this type of event , do such in such a VERY rural area, in VERY UNINHABITABLE TEMPS, with such lame parking, transportIon, accessible amenities. Sorry to say that many in this town feared just this type of tragedy. Sorry to say. “SUN GLOBE” would have allowed drugged and drunken teens to survive the night, at least the temps. This event was an accident waiting to happen.
Scary stuff to say the least. Mountaineers read of such behavior atop Everest. But, cold is cold, wherever you are.
We can’t expect a promoter to baby sit 10,000 each night. She was seen drinking alcohol, drugs-we will find out. She has to be responsible for her own actions, just as we all have to be. In her case, her actions may have killed her. It’s a terrible truth.
Very sad for her family and loved ones.
I am sure everyone will take away some lessons learned.
Was she the only person to die of exposure during the Christmas / New Years period in the Tahoe Basin?
How many had to be treated for hypothermia / exposure during this event?
If this was the only serious incident it seems allot of things must have been done right to keep so many safe under very extreme conditions.
not sure if i agree with my “imposter namesake” ;-)….were it summer there would be lots of people crawling around in the woods, fields, people’s backyards, congregating…and more people ‘preying’ upon the young festivalgoers. This is a tragic occurence…my heart goes out to this young lady’s family. blessings upon her soul, blessing upon her family’s hearts. i pray they find peace and comfort.
In the two years of this festival we have seen 1 tragic and unfortunate death, and some folks are advocating to end the festival. Every year most ski resorts encounter multiple deaths on the slopes, yet I don’t hear anyone advocating to shut down all ski resorts.
Biggerpicture, I dont see people wanting to end the festival, I see people wanting it sited in an urban area where the infrastructure can handle the event.
Ski resorts have the infrastructure to handle skiing.
Tragic things happen, but this was preventable and should have been anticipated. I had multiple conversations about exactly this happening with several people. I am not that smart, putting the event in a rural area with mandatory transportation of 10,000 people was that stupid.
John, so you consider an area with a college, and three neighborhoods adjacent to the venue within a half a mile as rural?
Bigs, at midnight, it pretty much IS.
I agree with John. We talked about the same thing. Good event, not a great venue. Forcing people to park away, and depend on sketchy shuttle service in the middle of the night to travel MILES back to where most were staying in sub-freezing temps was a recipe for disaster that was foreseeable to most of us.
Keep the event. Change the logistics.
Bigger, what makes it rural is that the attendents had to make it several miles to where they were staying as Dogula stated.
Big, do me a favor, at night go walk next to a snowbank on Pioneer. Then come back here and post how comfortable that is. You will have cars blowing by you at 40MPH and you cannot get off the road.
That makes it rural. Only in winter, and only in winter with snow.
A wiser choice would be to hold the event in the Stateline area where better support facilities, infrastructure, support staff, and less need for additional transportation are already in place. This event does not belong in a residential neighborhood.
Build a stage at Ta-HOLE and erect large tents for these concerts & events, & hold them all year long! That would bring $$ & business to the community, activity to the eye-sore, and keep attendees in an area where they don’t need shuttle buses. Ultimately, maybe the unnecessary convention center can become a popular entertainment venue like Shoreline in Mt. View. Can surround it with outside eating venues… And ultimately, these events could be packaged (accommodations, ticket sales, even bus transportation from Bay Area, Reno, Sacramento, etc….
4th of July & Labor-Day events could be staged at such a venue also, with free shuttle buses.
Irish Wahini,
I’ve suggested the same thing for the hole but didn’t get much of a response.
That is until now. People are talking about the death of Alyysa Bryne and are thinking of alternative locations as well as a different time of year for such an event.
The hole needs to be filled in and turned into a park and a place for concerts,rib and chili cook offs, wine and beer tastings during a warm summers night. Lots of possibilitys.
It’s lit up so you’re not sending the concert goers home in the dark, and it’s away from a highly populated residential area and most importantly the kids will be safer. It’s within the city limits so SLT can get a cut of the action from ticket sales and revenue generated from the concert. The snow dump at the end of Sierra blvd would also be a good location for a summer event.
I know I’ve said all this before but I felt it needed to be repeated.
Take Care, Old”Geezer”Skiis
The best alternative location for this drug & booze fest would be some place like Chico CA where the young and old run wild!
I suspect that none of the posters here were even out that night. There were thousands of blind drunk kids wandering around, including my own son that I had to rescue. Sad loss of life, but it could have been much worse.
you folks should go to the spot where they found Alyssa
you will see a very different picture than what is painted in this article
Chief, dont be obtuse…what are you referring to?
As a city we invite young kids from sea level to come party at a concert in south lake tahoe for new years. It is also our responsibility to keep these kids safe. The city council is in denial that this could have been prevented. Cole says ” unfortunate” Conner says the police did great. Davis says it was a success. Snowglobes biggest fan our city manager says nothing. All neglecting to state this will be a major topic for future concerts. We are not coming together as a community to honor her life. I went to the place she laid. I am suprised it was so close to the road. Let’s be
No one could have prevented this tragedy from happening. We can’t stop people from hitting trees or crossing the boundary lines at the ski resorts, so should we tell people they can’t ski or snowboard? People make their own decisions, and have every right to do so. Please stop trying to place the blame on others. We cannot protect everyone, even though we try too.
Snoheather, nobody is suggesting that. I ski avalanche terrain every week. I take personal responsibility. But then there is stupid. Putting the event where every single person has to be bussed back to their hotel is stupid. Particularly since they could just have the event right by the hotel we are bussing them from. Yes personal responsibility, but that doesnt mean I dive into steep back country terrain right after a 4 foot dump. The organizers were encouraging exactly that.
I want 20 Snowglobes a year, I just want them sited where it makes sense.
I am not trying to blame anyone for this tragic event. I find it rather shocking people think going to a concert is as much of a risk as going skiing or snowboarding. And I do believe if someone is lost on a moutain it doesn’t take them three days to find the just behind a wind lip off a run. Yes maybe these kids should be told to dress like they are going to the mountain . This was her 3rd night she knew what to wear by then. The city and promoters want this to go away. I want to make sure we honor Alyssa by making sure it doesn’t happen again. Iwould like to see an anual Alyssa Bryne memorial winter clothing drive and a tent at the event handing out hats, gloves, scarves, and jackets.
The majority of attendees at SnowGlobe were adults (over 18), very few minors were there. Average age was probably around 23.
Wait for all the facts to come out, including the autopsy, before passing judgement.