Marcus William Powell, 45, left, and Lucas Bryan, 26, both homeless, are introduced to a new person living on the streets by one of their friends on Friday afternoon near the Centralia Train Depot.
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The Lewis County Coroner’s Office has confirmed hypothermia as the cause of death for a homeless man found dead Wednesday morning in Centralia’s Rotary Riverside Park.
Coroner Warren McLeod has not yet released the man’s name pending a notification to his next of kin, but he decided to release some of the man’s identifying features after receiving dozens of calls from the worried families of other homeless Centralia residents.
“I’m hearing all these people’s stories about their loved ones on the street,” he said.
McLeod said the man was 57 years old and was 6 feet tall and weighed 215 pounds. He lived in the Centralia area for the past year and a half, and has also lived in areas including San Bernardino, San Diego, Las Vegas and Florida. He was born in Illinois.
Fellow homeless Centralians who told The Chronicle they were friendly with the man reacted to his death Friday.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” said Marcus Powell, who told The Chronicle he has been homeless for 20 years.
Lucas Bryan urged Powell Friday to stop by Riverside Park.
“I can’t walk past the park without crying,” he said. “I rode past it today, man, I couldn’t even ride past it.”
The Centralia Police Department responded to the park at 7 a.m. Wednesday after receiving a report of a dead body, Detective Patty Finch told The Chronicle.
McLeod said Wednesday his office was investigating the cold as a possible cause of death for the man, who was in an area where other homeless people were camping at the time of his death.
An autopsy took place Thursday, and the cause of death was confirmed as “hypothermia due to exposure to cold environment.” The manner of death was accidental.
While the cold primarily caused the man’s death, McLeod said he had numerous other health conditions that could have contributed to the hypothermia’s effect on his body.
The Coroner’s Office has not yet found a next of kin either in Lewis County or elsewhere, and no missing persons reports filed recently match the man’s description. The Coroner’s Office is working with law enforcement to track down possible family members.
However, McLeod said he believes his office has positively identified the man after sending his fingerprints to the FBI. The federal agency’s records show eight aliases and three Social Security numbers. Local police knew him by one name, which may not have been his legal name, McLeod said.
McLeod said he remembers few deaths from exposure in his time at the Coroner’s Office, since 2011, and said most of them have been elderly people who fell or became injured on their property and couldn’t get back inside.
“It’s been rare as far as (the) homeless,” he said. “… It was cold. It’s very cold out there.”
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Chronicle Visuals Editor Pete Caster contributed to this story.
