Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 16, 1993 TAG: 9303160187
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A LONELY DEATH IN WINTER ENDS LIFE ON THE STREET
Outside the Poff Building security office, a crutch leans against the wall. It is unlikely that anyone will come to claim it.Some may recognize it as the crutch James Peters used to drag behind him, but they probably won't be able to identify Peters by name.
A few blocks away, covered by a sheet in Roanoke's morgue, Peters, a homeless man who died from apparent heart failure during Saturday's blizzard, also waits to be claimed.
It is unlikely anyone will come for him, either.
He is one of 10 Western Virginians counted among the dead from the paralyzing storm that knocked down trees and pushed in rooftops when it dumped more than a foot of snow. But unlike the traffic victims and those who died shoveling snow, Peters left no worried family members in the hospital waiting room, nobody even to call in his obituary.
Perhaps he had a sister. Another street person who sometimes ate lunch with Peters at the Rescue Mission and drank with him in the alleys of Old Southwest remembers that he mentioned one once. But nobody knows where she is, or if she is alive.
"I just knew his name was James," said Pete Ferguson, another man at the Rescue Mission who said he sometimes drank with Peters. "I seen him picking up beer cans. He was mostly a loner. He stayed to himself all the time."
Community Hospital listed no next of kin. Peters was brought in with no identification, no date of birth. The medical examiner's office estimated his age to be 63.
An external examination revealed swollen ankles and legs - signs of chronic heart failure, said Dr. William Massello, of the medical examiner's office in Roanoke. An autopsy was not required.
He said the storm may have contributed to Peters' death, especially if he had been drinking.
"We have several deaths during the winter that are alcohol-related," Massello said. "Alcohol is not the kind of thing you want to be taking when you want to conserve body heat."
Postal workers said they often saw Peters in what appeared to be an inebriated state in the Poff Building's post office lobby, where he and other homeless people slept.
"He was in here Saturday morning emptying water out of his shoe," said Gloria Bruffey, a postal clerk. She said he appeared to have been drinking.
Steve Reynolds, another homeless man who knew Peters, said he stepped over him Saturday morning inside the Poff Building.
"I thought he was passed out," he said. "I couldn't pick him up and turn him."
Peters often stayed inside the building, near the the post office boxes, said Bruffey. One of the boxes was his.
Postal workers said he received a monthly income check, possibly a Social Security check.
City rescue workers said they don't know who dialed 911 for help when Peters suffered his heart attack. Peters was not breathing when the rescue squad arrived at 4:16 p.m., three minutes after the call came in, said Dave Hoback, deputy coordinator for the Emergency Medical Service.
"He was probably dead when we got there," Hoback said.
Other homeless people fared better during the storm and its aftermath, city shelter workers reported Monday.
While the Samaritan Inn, a day shelter, had to close during the weekend because of a leaky roof and a staff shut in by the storm, it reopened for lunch Monday to smaller-than-average crowds.
Gary Gunn, head cook for the shelter, said he fed about 40 people and there was plenty of food.
The Rescue Mission, which usually shelters the homeless overnight but not during the day, stayed open 24 hours during the blizzard, said Joy Sylvester-Johnson, the mission's director of development.
It sheltered 103 people Sunday night, she said. But the number was not higher than usual and those seeking shelter were not made homeless by the storm.
"Most of ours are people who would normally be sleeping in cars," she said.
Keywords:
FATALITY