Hypothermia likely killed an unhoused Burlington man who was found unresponsive in a city park in January, an autopsy concluded.
Paramedics found Perry Thornley, 61, lying in the snow along the edge of Battery Park on the morning of Jan. 8. They tried to resuscitate him, but he later died at the hospital, according to a police report released Wednesday.
Exposure deaths are rare in Vermont, despite the harsh winters. A joint investigation by Vermont Public and Seven Days did not find any cases between 2021 and 2024 in which a homeless person died by hypothermia alone.
The state provided wintertime shelter to as many as 95% of its homeless residents during that time, more than almost any other state. More people have slept outside the last couple of years, however, as the state has scaled back its cold-weather aid.
Thornley is at least the second person to die from exposure this winter. Richard Govea, 51, died in December during a bitterly cold night in Barre.
Barre City Police Chief Braedon Vail said Wednesday that an autopsy has since confirmed that Govea died accidentally of hypothermia while highly intoxicated.
An emergency cold-weather shelter was open on the night of Govea’s death, Vail said.
In Burlington, Thornley had been staying next to a bush along the stone wall that rims the scenic overlook of Lake Champlain, the police report states. An officer discovered gloves, a hat, an emergency shelter kit and an empty bottle of whiskey in the living area.
Temperatures that evening dipped just below freezing but were not low enough to trigger the opening of an emergency cold-weather shelter. Thornley had a body temperature of 59 degrees Fahrenheit by the time he arrived at the hospital.
The autopsy report listed his cause of death as “probable hypothermia due to environmental exposure during acute ethanol intoxication,” according to the police report. Alcohol use was listed as contributing to the accidental death.
Thornley died almost within eyeshot of a winter warming shelter that COTS had recently opened on Pearl Street. COTS programs do not typically admit intoxicated people, but executive director Jonathan Farrell said the shelter also offers up to six “overflow” cots each night for walk-ins that do not have a sobriety requirement.
COTS had some empty beds in both the shelter and the overflow area on the night before Thornley was discovered, Farrell said.
In a statement, Burlington Fire Chief Michael Curtin said Thornley’s death “underscores the importance of ensuring access to safe shelter during severe weather,” and that “the city remains committed to working with its partners to address those needs.”
Thornley was a longtime, well-known city resident. An obituary published in Seven Days described him as living “in the consciousness of Burlington, best known by those that he called his ‘street family’ and the many helping hands that wandered the city.
“Some referred to him as a rascal,” the obituary continued, “then a fondness would grow and flourish into a caring relationship. This is who Perry was: a tough exterior; a soft soul.”
